The general problems to be addressed by the Test Tool project are the following:

1. to provide a quick and easy to use software tool to generate and grade tests
2. to provide a secure environment to create and manage individual test questions
3. to provide a locked down test environment in which controlled resources are given to the students
4. to provide an environment for practice and take-home style tests

1. an integrated IDE to write and compile code during a test
2. generating tests from a database of questions
3. ability to retrieve previous tests
4. allowing the test administrator to modify question order and point values of generated tests
5. testing in a dedicated test-taking environment, in which students can't do anything but take tests

The Test Tool project addresses the requirements of a particular customer. This customer needs a tool with a collection of features not available in any single existing tool. This aspect of the problem is one of combining a set of existing features in a way that the features have yet to be combined in another product.

In addition, the development of functioning software, the Test Tool project focuses on two additional problems not addressed in commercial tools:

1. to provide a pedagogical example for use in the instruction of software engineering, including an example of the practical application of formal methods
2. to provide fully documented, public domain source code for use by others