A logic for assessing sets of heterogeneous testing hypotheses

Abstract

To ensure the conformance of an implementation under test (IUT) with respect to a specification requires, in general, the application of an infinite number of tests. In order to use finite test suites, most testing methodologies add some feasible hypotheses about the behavior of the IUT. Since these methodologies are designed for considering a fix set of hypotheses, they usually do not have the capability of dealing with other scenarios where the set of assumed hypotheses varies. We propose a logic to infer whether a set of observations (i.e., results of test applications) allows to claim that the IUT conforms to the specification if a specific set of hypotheses (taken from a repertory) is assumed.