Why model based testing?

So, why did I decide to start blogging about model based testing? Good question. I will try to answer this in my first post.

The obvious answer is that I believe model based testing is a strong practice to apply when performing software testing - one that every software tester should be aware of.

The more subtle answer lies in how I perceive software testing in general. I believe that the art of software testing is all about minimizing risk. What I often hear is that software testing is all about creativity. I disagree with this view because creativity often is far from rigourous. I believe we need a mixture of creativity when determining risks, but when it comes to automation of scenarios, these should be selected from rigourous criteria instead of human creativity - for example through the use of model based testing.

Model based testing in essence can be seen as a driving mechanism for generating test inputs for your system under test (okay - I know this is a simplification, but anyway). Once your model is completed (and assuming it is finite in state space) the exploration of it will test all possible combinations on the input. This is clearly a more rigourous way of testing your system, than coming up with all the scenarios by your self.

This was a very short introduction to why I blogg about model based testing.