Software validation through testing will continue to be a very important tool for ensuring correctness of large scale software systems. Automation of testing tools can greatly enhance their power and reduce testing cost. In this paper, techniques for automated test data generation are discussed. Given a program graph, a set of paths are identified to satisfy some given testing criteria. When a path or a program segment is specified, symbolic execution is used for generating input constraints which define a set of inputs for executing this path or segment. Problems encountered in symbolic execution are discussed. A new approach for resolving array reference ambiguities and a procedure for generating test inputs satisfying input constraints are proposed. References to arrays are recorded in a table. during symbolic execution and ambiguities are resolved when test data are generated to evaluate the subscript expressions. The implementation of a test data generator for Fortran programs incorporating these techniques is also described.

The usefulness of software monitors in testing large programs is discussed. Several types of testing strategies based on the use of monitors are surveyed. Since there is a computational overhead involved in employing monitors, attempts are made to minimize the number of monitors employed. This optimisation problem is formulated and analyzed in graph theoretic terms. Implementation aspects are considered through both discussion and examples.