History, status, and recent trends of the testing and test control notation version 3 (TTCN-3)

This overview article presents the Testing and Test Control Notation (TTCN-3) success story and serves as an introduction to this Special Section that contains five articles selected from the TTCN-3 user conference in 2011. The article sketches the development of TTCN-3 from its very beginning. It summarizes the current status of the language by reviewing its standardization process, available test suites, tools, and services as well as its training program. In addition, the article puts the articles selected for this Special Section into perspective, with regard to the evolution of TTCN-3 and the testing methodology in general. Last but not least, it discusses indicators for possible future developments of TTCN-3.