Oxygen project (formerly PCTgen)

Key features

The main use of the application is to significantly reduce the time needed for the manual creation of the test cases.
Oxygen allows automated generation of process and workflow test cases. The System Under Test (SUT) is modeled by directed multigraphs (in the current version decision points = nodes, actions and decision variants = edges), or by simplified UML Activity Diagram.
For the generation of test cases, Test Depth Level (TDL) coverage criterion is used (practically equivalent to N-switch coverage). By TDL, it also supports Edge coverage (TDL=1), Edge-pairs coverage (TDL=2). Prime paths coverage is going to be added in the future release.
Priority functions and decision points in the SUT can be marked in the model. The test cases are optimized to cover only these priorities while keeping a possibility to determine the intensity of testing by TDL.
Open formats based on XML, CSV, and JSON are used for importing & exporting of the graphs and exports of created test cases. This allows connection of Oxygen to design and test management tools.
Oxygen is written as a platform-independent fat-client application in Java.

Research and development

Oxygen is one of the products of our research in model-based testing algorithms. Besides the practical usability of its public release for the test designer community, the application serves as an experimental platform for the testing and verification of the algorithms we are developing.
The current public version supports:
- Process Cycle Test (PCT) algorithm: Optimized TDL-based test case generation, extended by TDL reduction in graph cycles
- Prioritized Process Test (PPT) algorithm combining TDL with Priority Level (PL) coverage criterion
In the upcoming versions, better algorithms generating test sets closer to the optimum are going to be released (currently verified by experiments).

Creating the SUT model

Generation of test cases

Alternative SC, PG and RSC algorithms based on the test requirements concept are being tested
New core module optimizing the test cases through selected criteria (e.g., number of test steps, number of unique test steps, number of E2E test cases) is currently being tested

Creating the SUT model

Prioritization of workflow model parts
New editor to create the model of the SUT processes in a simplified UML Activity Diagram
Exporting the graph in JSON
Visualization of end nodes, some usability improvements

Generation of test cases

Export of generated test cases to JSON and TXT
Generation of more efficient test cases by Prioritized Process Test (PPT) algorithm
New data consistency testing features, based on extended CRUD matrix as a model of the SUT

Creating the graph

Project structure

Creating the graph

Generation of test cases

Automated generation of test cases by TDL coverage criteria
Reduction of TDL in graph cycles
Display of edges sub-combinations and final test cases in table
Visualization of selected test case in the graph
When graph is changed, affected (obsolete) test cases are marked in the project tree
Export of generated test cases to XML / CSV file

Others

Miroslav Bures: PCTgen: Automated Generation of Test Cases for Application Workflows. In New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol.353, p. 789-794, Springer, 2015.
Miroslav Bures, Tomas Cerny and Matej Klima: Prioritized Process Test: More Efficiency in Testing of Business Processes and Workflows. In ICISA 2017, LNEE vol.424, p. 585-593, Springer, 2017.

Oxygen project (formerly PCTgen) - Experimental Model-based Testing Environment