Automating TEST Case Design, Selection and Evaluation Report on 10 Editions of A-TESTWorkshop

Abstract

Trends such as globalisation, standardisation and shorter life-cycles place great demands on the flexibility of the software industry. In order to compete and cooperate on an international scale, a constantly decreasing time to market and an increasing level of quality are essential. Testing is at the moment the most important and mostly used quality assurance technique applied in industry. However, the complexity of software and hence of their development amount is increasing. Modern systems get larger and more complex, as they connect large amounts of components that interact in many different ways and have constantly changing and different types of requirements (functionality, dependability, usability, performance etc.). Data processing that impacts all aspects of our life is increasingly distributed over clouds and devices. This leads to new concerns, such as availability, security, and privacy, which are aspects that also needs to be tested. Consequently, the development of cost-effective and high-quality systems opens new challenges that cannot be faced only with traditional testing approaches, and specifically manual testing is simply insufficient and unreliable to manage the speed needed, and ensure the coverage of ever-changing systems. New techniques for systematization and automation of testing throughout the software and system life-cycle are required.