Context:

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become the de facto standard for software modeling. UML models are often used to visualize, understand, and communicate the structure and behavior of a system. UML activity diagrams (ADs) are often used to elaborate and visualize individual use cases. Due to their higher level of abstraction and process-oriented perspective, UML ADs are also highly suitable for model-based test generation. In the last two decades, different researchers have used UML ADs for test generation. Despite the growing use of UML ADs for model-based testing, there are currently no comprehensive and unbiased studies on the topic.

Objective:

To present a comprehensive and unbiased overview of the state-of-the-art on model-based testing using UML ADs.

Method:

We review and structure the current body of knowledge on model-based testing using UML ADs by performing a systematic mapping study using well-known guidelines. We pose nine research questions, outline our selection criteria, and develop a classification scheme.

Results:

The results comprise 41 primary studies analyzed against nine research questions. We also highlight the current trends and research gaps in model-based testing using UML ADs and discuss some shortcomings for researchers and practitioners working in this area. The results show that the existing approaches on model-based testing using UML ADs tend to rely on intermediate formats and formalisms for model verification and test generation, employ a multitude of graph-based coverage criteria, and use graph search algorithms.

Conclusion:

We present a comprehensive overview of the existing approaches on model-based testing using UML ADs. We conclude that (1) UML ADs are not being used for non-functional testing, (2) only a few approaches have been validated against realistic, industrial case studies, (3) most approaches target very restricted application domains, and (4) there is currently a clear lack of holistic approaches for model-based testing using UML ADs.

中文翻译：

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使用UML活动图的基于模型的测试：系统的映射研究

内容：

统一建模语言（UML）已成为软件建模的事实上的标准。UML模型通常用于可视化，理解和交流系统的结构和行为。UML活动图（AD）通常用于阐述和可视化单个用例。由于其较高的抽象水平和面向过程的角度，UML AD也非常适合基于模型的测试生成。在过去的二十年中，不同的研究人员已使用UML AD进行测试生成。尽管UML AD在基于模型的测试中的使用越来越多，但目前尚无关于该主题的全面且公正的研究。

目的：

提供有关使用UML AD进行的基于模型的测试的最新技术的全面而公正的概述。

方法：

我们通过使用知名指南进行系统的制图研究，来复查和构建有关使用UML AD进行基于模型的测试的当前知识体系。我们提出了9个研究问题，概述了选择标准，并制定了分类方案。

结果：

结果包括针对9个研究问题进行的41项基础研究。我们还将重点介绍使用UML AD进行基于模型的测试的当前趋势和研究差距，并讨论该领域研究人员和从业人员的一些缺点。结果表明，使用UML AD进行基于模型的测试的现有方法倾向于依靠中间格式和形式主义进行模型验证和测试生成，采用多种基于图的覆盖标准，并使用图搜索算法。

结论：

我们对使用UML AD进行基于模型的测试的现有方法进行了全面概述。我们得出的结论是：（1）UML AD未用于非功能测试；（2）仅针对实际的工业案例研究验证了几种方法；（3）大多数方法针对非常受限的应用领域；（4）当前，明显缺乏使用UML AD进行基于模型的测试的整体方法。