ACATS 3.0 User's Guide
3.1 Test Objectives and Rules
A test objective should
relate as directly as possible to the rules of Ada. Ideally, a test objective
will test an individual rule of Ada.
Rule means whatever set of
sentences makes up a testable statement. A rule may be as small as a
single line, or spread across multiple paragraphs of the standards.
For instance,
[Ada95]
contains the rule
The implicit declaration of the limited view of
a library package forms an (implicit) compilation unit whose context_clause
is empty.
in subclause 10.1.1.
The corresponding test objective is
Check that the context clause of a limited view
is empty.
However, virtually all rules require the use of other
rules (such as those for definitions of terms) in order to be testable.
For instance, testing the above rule needs the definition of terms like
"limited view" and "context_clause"
(among others) in order for a test to be constructed.
As such, a test objective will generally apply to
multiple Ada rules. Typically, it will be recorded for a specific rule.
For the purposes of deciding if a rule is appropriately tested, it is
necessary to study the ACATS coverage documents (see
3.2.1).
