Generation of Context-Based Usage Scenario Test from UML Sequence Diagrams

Software Testing plays a non-negligible role in minimizing the Software development cost. One of the most important trends for this objective is the use of Model Based Testing (MBT). MBT consists in automatically generating validation tests from a customized model describing some functional aspects of the System Under Test (SUT). However, a dedicated test model should be created. This process is time and man power consuming and hence, it is not widely adopted in the industry. In our work, we present a methodology to facilitate the use of MBT in companies by using project artefacts to automatically create a test model based on the usage of the SUT (what we call a usage model). In this paper, we focus on transforming UML Sequence Diagrams into a usage model. This transformation will be done based on the notion of context, which is the history of previous events on the SUT to be able to factorize and get a valid usage model. This notion is very important when two events are managed differently by the SUT depending on the set of previous inputs. A use case of an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is presented to describe the need and the associated issues. The work presented in this article is supported by the French project Clarity.