About Spec Explorer

Spec Explorer 2010 is a tool that extends Visual Studio for modeling software behavior, analyzing that behavior by graphical visualization, model checking; and generating standalone test code from models. Behavior is modeled in two ways: by writing rule machines in C# (with dynamic data-defined state spaces) and by defining scenarios as action patterns in a regular-expression style. One of Spec Explorer’s major features is the ability to compose models written in these two styles. This technique enables users to slice out test cases from large state machines by defining relevant scenarios, thus tackling the notorious state-space explosion problem pervasive in model-based testing. Spec Explorer also supports combinatorial interaction testing with a rich set of features.

Past, Present and Future

During the transition from the now historic Spec Explorer 2004, Spec Explorer moved from Microsoft Research to an engineering group in the Windows Server organization where it is being maintained and grown by a full-fledged development team. Spec Explorer 2010 is shipping in the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 time frame in pre-release version 3.0 to gain user feedback. It is anticipated to release in the same time frame as Visual Studio 2010. Please remember the final version may differ from this one and a final commercial version may not be released.

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Featured Video

Watch the Channel 9 video, Spec Explorer: Model-Based Testing Made Practicable