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The Computer Journal 1988 31(1):17-24; doi:10.1093/comjnl/31.1.17
© 1988 by British Computer Society
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Metric Space-based Test-data Adequacy Criteria

M. Davis * and E. Weyuker *

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012, USA

Since software testing cannot ordinarily be expected to provide conclusive evidence that a program is correct, software engineers have had to be satisfied with the vague notion of a set of test data being adequate for a given program. In this paper a theoretical model is provided for the notion of adequacy. Adequacy criteria are seen as serving to distinguish a given program from a certain class of programs. In particular, notions of distance between programs are studied, and adequacy of a test set is taken to mean that the set successfully distinguishes the program being tested from all programs that are sufficiently near to it, and differ in input-output behaviour from the given program. Certain points, called critical, are identified which must occur in every adequate test set. Finally, lower bounds are obtained on the size of test sets which are minimally adequate, in the sense that they have no adequate proper subsets.

Received May 1986. revised December 1986.

* Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012, USA


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