A goal-oriented software testing methodology

Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies are proposed to develop complex distributed systems based upon the agent paradigm. The natural implementation for such systems has usually the form of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). As these systems are increasingly applied in mission-critical services, assurances need to be given to their owners and users that they operate properly. Although the relevance of the link between requirements engineering and testing has long been recognized, current Agent-Oriented Software Engineering methodologies partially address it. Some of them offer specification-based formal verification, allowing software developers to correct errors at the beginning of the development process, others exploits Object-Oriented (OO) testing techniques, upon a mapping of agent-oriented abstractions into OO constructs. However, a structured testing process for AOSE methodologies that complements formal verification is still missing. In this paper we introduce a testing framework for the AOSE methodology Tropos. It specifies a testing process model that complements the agent-oriented requirements and design models and strengthens the mutual relationship between goal analysis and testing. Furthermore, it provides a systematic way of deriving test cases from goal analysis. We call this approach goal-oriented testing.