Challenges Regarding Automation of Requirements-based Testing

Testing as a method of software verification is limited in that it can only prove the presence of defects, not their absence. To be useful, a large number of test cases may be needed, a strategy that is often in conflict with project constraints such as available time and funds. Test automation may be considered as an interesting approach to alleviating this conflict. However, test automation requires accurate and computer-accessible information about the system to be tested, both in terms of the interfaces by which the system is to be stimulated as well as the desired properties of these interfaces. Within the FASTII activity (FAST=Flow-optimised Automated Source-code based Testing) the possibility of deriving this information from available requirements and design documents is being investigated. Preliminary results of this investigation as well as suggestions for future changes in the process are presented in this paper.