Axini develops tools for model based testing (MBT) and model based software engineering (MBSE). Model based testing is a software testing approach in which test cases are automatically generated and executed from a model, a formal specification of the system under test. This approach allows for a high degree of test automation and more thorough testing.
Models are written in a domain specific language (the Axini Modeling Language) using a text editor included in our web application. The models can be visualized to inspect the states and transitions of the underlying symbolic transition system. This aids modelers understand and reason about their models, which is valued greatly.
However, for real systems, models are generally quite large and complex. A different visualization technique might be needed to allow reasoning about such models.
Additionally, certain concepts in the modeling language such as parallelism, synchronization, non-determinism and time cannot (yet) be visualized effectively.
Possible research questions
There are several puzzles and research questions that students can work on.
Recent work
Recent work at Axini on this topic:
- Dennis van de Werf (2018) explored the technique of semantic zooming to aid visualizing large models.