A data flow-based structural testing technique for FBD programs

Eunkyoung Jee; Junbeom Yoo; Sungdeok Cha; Doohwan Bae

doi:10.1016/j.infsof.2009.01.003

A data flow-based structural testing technique for FBD programs

Eunkyoung Jee, Junbeom Yoo, Sungdeok Cha, Doohwan Bae

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

With increased use of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in implementing critical systems, quality assurance became an important issue. Regulation requires structural testing be performed for safety-critical systems by identifying coverage criteria to be satisfied and accomplishment measured. Classical coverage criteria, based on control flow graphs, are inadequate when applied to a data flow language function block diagram (FBD) which is a PLC programming language widely used in industry. We propose three structural coverage criteria for FBD programs, analyze relationship among them, and demonstrate their effectiveness using a real-world reactor protection system. Using test cases that had been manually prepared by FBD testing professionals, our technique found many aspects of the FBD logic that were not tested sufficiently. Domain experts, having found the approach highly intuitive, found the technique effective.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1131-1139
Number of pages	9
Journal	Information and Software Technology
Volume	51
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2009.01.003
Publication status	Published - 2009 Jul

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by the MKE (Ministry of Knowledge Economy), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program supervised by the IITA (Institute of Information Technology Advancement) (IITA-2009-(C1090-0902-0032)), and also partially supported by a Korea University Grant and the Korean Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2008-331-D00524).

Keywords

Function block diagram
Programmable logic controller
Software testing
Structural testing
Test coverage criteria

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Information Systems
Computer Science Applications

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10.1016/j.infsof.2009.01.003

Cite this

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title = "A data flow-based structural testing technique for FBD programs",

abstract = "With increased use of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in implementing critical systems, quality assurance became an important issue. Regulation requires structural testing be performed for safety-critical systems by identifying coverage criteria to be satisfied and accomplishment measured. Classical coverage criteria, based on control flow graphs, are inadequate when applied to a data flow language function block diagram (FBD) which is a PLC programming language widely used in industry. We propose three structural coverage criteria for FBD programs, analyze relationship among them, and demonstrate their effectiveness using a real-world reactor protection system. Using test cases that had been manually prepared by FBD testing professionals, our technique found many aspects of the FBD logic that were not tested sufficiently. Domain experts, having found the approach highly intuitive, found the technique effective.",

keywords = "Function block diagram, Programmable logic controller, Software testing, Structural testing, Test coverage criteria",

author = "Eunkyoung Jee and Junbeom Yoo and Sungdeok Cha and Doohwan Bae",

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AU - Yoo, Junbeom

AU - Cha, Sungdeok

AU - Bae, Doohwan

N1 - Funding Information: This work was partially supported by the MKE (Ministry of Knowledge Economy), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program supervised by the IITA (Institute of Information Technology Advancement) (IITA-2009-(C1090-0902-0032)), and also partially supported by a Korea University Grant and the Korean Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2008-331-D00524).

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N2 - With increased use of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in implementing critical systems, quality assurance became an important issue. Regulation requires structural testing be performed for safety-critical systems by identifying coverage criteria to be satisfied and accomplishment measured. Classical coverage criteria, based on control flow graphs, are inadequate when applied to a data flow language function block diagram (FBD) which is a PLC programming language widely used in industry. We propose three structural coverage criteria for FBD programs, analyze relationship among them, and demonstrate their effectiveness using a real-world reactor protection system. Using test cases that had been manually prepared by FBD testing professionals, our technique found many aspects of the FBD logic that were not tested sufficiently. Domain experts, having found the approach highly intuitive, found the technique effective.

AB - With increased use of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in implementing critical systems, quality assurance became an important issue. Regulation requires structural testing be performed for safety-critical systems by identifying coverage criteria to be satisfied and accomplishment measured. Classical coverage criteria, based on control flow graphs, are inadequate when applied to a data flow language function block diagram (FBD) which is a PLC programming language widely used in industry. We propose three structural coverage criteria for FBD programs, analyze relationship among them, and demonstrate their effectiveness using a real-world reactor protection system. Using test cases that had been manually prepared by FBD testing professionals, our technique found many aspects of the FBD logic that were not tested sufficiently. Domain experts, having found the approach highly intuitive, found the technique effective.

KW - Function block diagram

KW - Programmable logic controller

KW - Software testing

KW - Structural testing

KW - Test coverage criteria

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JO - Information and Software Technology

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IS - 7

ER -

A data flow-based structural testing technique for FBD programs

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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