Structure-based validation of rule-based systems

摘要

A central problem in validating rule-based systems is ensuring that the structural components of the system have been tested sufficiently thoroughly. In this paper, we present a method that can be used for structure-based testing of rule-based systems. Our method includes a model for determining the structural components in a rule base, a metric for quantifying coverage (the degree to which the structural components in a rule base have been tested) and techniques for analyzing the coverage obtained when a rule base is exercised on a given test set. We present the results produced by applying our method for structure-based testing to a complex rule-based system that had been previously subjected to functional testing. The results we obtained indicate that our method for structure-based testing reveals several types of faults not shown by previous testing, and quantifies the extent to which the rule base has been tested.