Unit Testing Level Research Articles

Adapting automated test generation to GUI testing of industry applications

ContextAutomated test generation promises to improve the effectiveness of software testing and to reduce the involved manual effort. While automated test generation has been successfully applied for code-level API testing, it has not found widespread adoption in practice for testing of graphical user interfaces. Tools for test generation do not support GUI testing out-of-the-box but require dedicated extensions. ObjectiveThis paper explores the applicability of automated test generation for testing GUIs of industry applications. We propose a test adapter approach to bridge the gap between automated test generation tools and industry applications. MethodA multiple case study was conducted in which automated test generation with test adapters has been applied at the unit, integration, and system test level in three industry projects from two different companies. ResultsAutomated test generation via test adapters could be applied at all test levels. It has led to an increase of coverage as well as the detection of new defects that were not found by preceding testing activities in the projects. While test adapters can easily be implemented at the unit test level, their complexity and the corresponding effort for providing adapter implementations rises at higher test levels. ConclusionTest adapters can be used for applying automated test generation for testing GUIs of industry applications. They bridge the gap between automated test generation tools and industry applications. The development of test adapters requires no tool-specific knowledge and can be performed by members of the development team.

On Software Unit Testing for Improving Security and Performance of Distributed Applications

Performance and security are software (SW) application attributes situated on the opposite corners of system design. In the most drastic example the most secure component is the one totally isolated from the outside world, with communication performance reduced to zero level (e.g. disconnected physically from the network, placed inside a Faraday cage to eliminate possible wireless accessibility). On the other hand the most performance-optimized system is the one with all security rules taken off. Obviously such extreme implementations cannot be accepted, thus a reasonable trade-off between security and performance is desired, starting from the appropriate design, resulting in the adequate implementation, confirmed by security and performance testing in production environment. Unit testing (UT) is a well-know method of examining the smallest portion of SW application source code – units: methods, classes, interfaces in order to verify whether they behave as designed. Ideally, each UT test case is separated from others, taking advantage of stubs and mocks to provide full isolation from external test factors. This paper is an extension to research about joint security testing and performance testing for improving quality of distributed applications working in public-private network environments,addressing SW quality assessment at different, unit test level.

A practical model‐based statistical approach for generating functional test cases: application in the automotive industry

SUMMARYWith the growing complexity of industrial software applications, industrials are looking for efficient and practical methods to validate the software. This paper develops a model‐based statistical testing approach that automatically generates online and offline test cases for embedded software. It discusses an integrated framework that combines solutions for three major software testing research questions: (i) how to select test inputs; (ii) how to predict the expected results of a test; and (iii) when to stop testing software. The automatic selection of test inputs is based on a stochastic test model that accounts for the main particularity of embedded software: time sensitivity. Software test practitioners may design one or more test models when they generate random, user‐oriented, or fault‐oriented test inputs. A formal framework integrating existing and appropriate specification techniques was developed for the design of automated test oracles (executable software specifications) and the formal measurement of functional coverage. The decision to stop testing software is based on both test coverage objectives and cost constraints. This approach was tested on two representative case studies from the automotive industry. The experiment was performed at unit testing level in a simulated environment on a host personal computer (automatic test execution). The two software functionalities tested had previously been unit tested and validated using the test design approach conventionally used in the industry. Applying the proposed model‐based statistical testing approach to these two case studies, we obtained significant improvements in performing functional unit testing in a real and complex industrial context: more bugs were detected earlier and in a shorter time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reducing Interface Mutation Costs with Multiobjective Optimization Algorithms

To reduce mutation test costs, different strategies were proposed to find a set of essential operators that generates a reduced number of mutants without decreasing the mutation score. However, the operator selection is influenced by other factors, such as: number of test data, execution time, number of revealed faults, etc. In fact this is a multiobjective problem. For that, different good solutions exist. To properly deal with this problem, a selection strategy based on multiobjective algorithms was proposed and investigated for unit testing. This work explores the use of such strategy in the integration testing phase. Three multiobjective algorithms are used and evaluated with real programs: one algorithm based on tabu search (MTabu), one based on Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and the third one based on Ant Colony Optimization (PACO). The results are compared with traditional strategies and contrasted with essential operators obtained in the unit testing level.

단위테스트를 위한 레거시소프트웨어시스템의 재구성 기법

레거시소프트웨어시스템을 유지 및 보수하는 작업은 소프트웨어 공학 분야에서 중요한 화두이다. 그리고 유지 및 보수 과정에 있어 회귀 테스트는 소프트웨어의 변경에 따른 기능적 동작이 올바른지 확인한다. 그러나 기존의 회귀 테스트는 대부분 시스템 레벨에서 접근이 되었으며 단위테스트 레벨에서는 준비된 테스트 케이스가 없어서 적용이 어려웠다. 본 논문에서는 단위테스트 케이스들을 구현하고 자산화하기 위해서 기존의 레거시소프트웨어시스템을 재구성하는 기법을 제안한다. 그리고 이를 실제 개발 과제의 특정 모듈에 적용하고 그 테스트 커버리지 결과를 분석하였다. 향후 본 논문에서 제시하는 방안을 기반으로 재구성 자동화 기법 및 테스트 케이스 자동화 생성에 대한 연구가 지속된다면 레거시소프트웨어시스템의 유지 및 보수에 큰 발전을 기대할 수 있을 것이다. The maintenance of legacy software systems is very important in the field of a software engineering. In the maintenance, a regression test confirms the behavior preserving of the software which has been changed but most of regression tests are done in a system level and rarely done in a unit test level because there is no test case. This paper proposes how to modify legacy software systems and make unit test cases as an asset. It uses a technique with a specific module of a real software development project and analyzes test coverage results. After this, if a study about automatic restructuring techniques and a test case generation proceeds continuously, we can expect the big advance of legacy software systems maintenance.