Investigating the Relation between Requirements Framing and Confirmation Bias in Testing

Abstract

Requirements Engineering (RE) and Software Testing (ST) phases are essential to software development. Acknowledging the emergence of cognitive biases, systematic divergences from optimum decision-making, is crucial in software development because of the extensive human participation in various roles. How information is presented can impact decision-making, known as the framing effect—a cognitive bias. The framing effect hinders creativity in software design during the requirements phase. This cognitive effect may further lead to another bias —confirmation bias— in ST. Confirmation bias in ST is testing requirements-consistent behaviors instead of requirements-inconsistent ones. This research explores the effects of framing software requirements on the manifestation of confirmation bias during testing. Additionally, the work aims to propose mitigation strategies, referred to as debiasing, for framing and confirmation bias in the context of ST. This work employs both quantitative and qualitative empirical methods to address its aims. Hence, this research will explore the relation between the framing of requirements and the confirmation bias during ST. Furthermore, this research will also develop debiasing techniques to mitigate the negative effects of these biases to improve software quality.