Open Access

REVIEW

Automated Test Case Generation from Requirements: A Systematic Literature Review

Ahmad Mustafa¹, Wan M. N. Wan-Kadir¹, Noraini Ibrahim¹, Muhammad Arif Shah^3,*, Muhammad Younas², Atif Khan⁴, Mahdi Zareei⁵, Faisal Alanazi⁶

1 Department of Software Engineering, School of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Johor Bahru, Johor, 81310, Malaysia
2 Department of Computer Science, Government College University, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan
3 Department of Software Engineering, Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, Haripur, 22620, Pakistan
4 Department of Computer Science, Islamia College Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
5 Tecnologico de Monterrey, School of Engineering and Sciences, Zapopan, 45201, Mexico
6 Department of Electrical Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al Kharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia

* Corresponding Author: Muhammad Arif Shah. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2021, 67(2), 1819-1833. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2021.014391

Received 17 September 2020; Accepted 18 October 2020; Issue published 05 February 2021

Abstract

Software testing is an important and cost intensive activity in software development. The major contribution in cost is due to test case generations. Requirement-based testing is an approach in which test cases are derivative from requirements without considering the implementation’s internal structure. Requirement-based testing includes functional and nonfunctional requirements. The objective of this study is to explore the approaches that generate test cases from requirements. A systematic literature review based on two research questions and extensive quality assessment criteria includes studies. The study identifies 30 primary studies from 410 studies spanned from 2000 to 2018. The review’s finding shows that 53% of journal papers, 42% of conference papers, and 5% of book chapters’ address requirements-based testing. Most of the studies use UML, activity, and use case diagrams for test case generation from requirements. One of the significant lessons learned is that most software testing errors are traced back to errors in natural language requirements. A substantial amount of work focuses on UML diagrams for test case generations, which cannot capture all the system’s developed attributes. Furthermore, there is a lack of UML-based models that can generate test cases from natural language requirements by refining them in context. Coverage criteria indicate how efficiently the testing has been performed 12.37% of studies use requirements coverage, 20% of studies cover path coverage, and 17% study basic coverage.

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Keywords

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