Systematic Model-Based Testing of Embedded Automotive Software

The software embedded in automotive control systems increasingly determines the functionality and properties of present-day motor vehicles. The development and test process of the systems and the embedded software becomes the limiting factor. While these challenges, on the development side, are met by employing model-based specification, design, and implementation techniques, satisfactory solutions on the testing side are slow in arriving. With regard to the systematic test design and the description of test scenarios especially, there is a lot of room for improvement. This paper introduces the model-based black-box testing (MB3T) approach in order to effectively minimize these de cits by creating a systematic procedure for the design of test scenarios for embedded automotive software and its integration in the model-based development process. According to the MB3T approach, logical test scenarios are rst de ned based on the textual requirements specification of the embedded software. These test scenarios are specified at a high level of abstraction and do not contain any implementation details of the test object. Due to their close link to the requirements it is easy to check which requirements are covered by which test scenario. Subsequently, the requirement-based logical tests are re ned to executable model-based test scenarios. Finally, the approach helps to check, whether or not the logical test scenarios are fully covered by the executable test scenarios. The MB3T approach has recently been successfully employed in a number of automotive embedded software development projects at DaimlerChrysler