Defining testing concepts

Before considering the main testing concepts, it is necessary to take a step back and to consider what can be tested in any given system. In modeling terms, the contents of the model are defined by the views and, in turn, these views have their structure and content defined by a set of viewpoints that comprise part of the framework. This was covered in detail in Chapter 2, Model-Based Systems Engineering. The viewpoints themselves are based on the ontology, which, it has been demonstrated throughout this book, is the cornerstone to achieving successful MBSE and, hence, systems engineering. The ontology, we can therefore infer, forms the heart of the views (and, therefore, the model) as each element that appears on a view is actually an instance of an ontology element.

If we now ask the question "which elements that make up the model can be tested?", then the answer is that any element in the model may be tested to some degree or other.

We...