evaluation framework for software test processes

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. f��r Informatik, Diss., 2009

Software Test Process Development

In this thesis, the components important for testing work and organisational test process are identified and analysed. This work focuses on the testing activities in reallife software organisations, identifying the important test process components, observing testing work in practice, and analysing how the organisational test process could be developed. Software professionals from 14 different software organisations were interviewed to collect data on organisational test process and testing���related factors. Moreover, additional data on organisational aspects was collected with a survey conducted on 31 organisations. This data was further analysed with the Grounded Theory method to identify the important test process components, and to observe how real���life test organisations develop their testing activities. The results indicate that the test management at the project level is an important factor; the organisations do have sufficient test resources available, but they are not necessarily applied efficiently. In addition, organisations in general are reactive; they develop their process mainly to correct problems, not to enhance their efficiency or output quality. The results of this study allows organisations to have a better understanding of the test processes, and develop towards better practices and a culture of preventing problems, not reacting to them.

Requirements definition and testing of the new version of multi-mission generic monitoring system (GEMS) v 4.4 for operations at Eumetsat

EUMETSAT (www.eumetsat.int) e��� l���agenzia europea per operazioni su satelliti per monitorare clima, meteo e ambiente terrestre. Dal centro operativo situato a Darmstadt (Germania), si controllano satelliti meteorologici su orbite geostazionarie e polari che raccolgono dati per l���osservazione dell���atmosfera, degli oceani e della superficie terrestre per un servizio continuo di 24/7. Un sistema di monitoraggio centralizzato per programmi diversi all���interno dell���ambiente operazionale di EUMETSAT, e��� dato da GEMS (Generic Event Monitoring System). Il software garantisce il controllo di diverse piattaforme, cross-monitoring di diverse sezioni operative, ed ha le caratteristiche per potere essere esteso a future missioni. L���attuale versione della GEMS MMI (Multi Media Interface), v. 3.6, utilizza standard Java Server Pages (JSP) e fa uso pesante di codici Java; utilizza inoltre files ASCII per filtri e display dei dati. Conseguenza diretta e��� ad esempio, il fatto che le informazioni non sono automaticamente aggiornate, ma hanno bisogno di ricaricare la pagina. Ulteriori inputs per una nuova versione della GEMS MMI vengono da diversi comportamenti anomali riportati durante l���uso quotidiano del software. La tesi si concentra sulla definizione di nuovi requisiti per una nuova versione della GEMS MMI (v. 4.4) da parte della divisione ingegneristica e di manutenzione di operazioni di EUMETSAT. Per le attivita��� di supporto, i test sono stati condotti presso Solenix. Il nuovo software permettera��� una migliore applicazione web, con tempi di risposta piu��� rapidi, aggiornamento delle informazioni automatico, utilizzo totale del database di GEMS e le capacita��� di filtri, insieme ad applicazioni per telefoni cellulari per il supporto delle attivita��� di reperibilita���. La nuova versione di GEMS avra��� una nuova Graphical User Interface (GUI) che utilizza tecnologie moderne. Per un ambiente di operazioni come e��� quello di EUMETSAT, dove l���affidabilita��� delle tecnologie e la longevita��� dell���approccio scelto sono di vitale importanza, non tutti gli attuali strumenti a disposizione sono adatti e hanno bisogno di essere migliorati. Allo stesso tempo, un��� interfaccia moderna, in termini di visual design, interattivita��� e funzionalita���, e��� importante per la nuova GEMS MMI.

Formaci��n tard��a de etringita en fibrocemento.

La temperatura de curado, utilizada por la industria de fibrocemento como catalizador en la hidrataci��n del cemento para lograr alta resistencia inicial en sus productos, genera la hip��tesis de expansi��n causada por formaci��n tard��a de etringita. Para el planteamiento de dicha hip��tesis, el siguiente estudio contempl�� dos grupos de muestras con el objetivo de estudiar aisladamente su comportamiento qu��mico y f��sico: uno de los grupos conformado por pasta cementicia con 35% de sustituci��n de calcario, y el otro conformado por fibrocemento con incorporaci��n de PVA y celulosa. Por calorimetr��a isot��rmica se observ�� la cin��tica de reacci��n de dos pastas, una de ellas curada a 23 ��C y la otra a 85 ��C donde esta ��ltima experiment�� un efecto catalizador en sus reacciones. Ensayos de DRX y DTG/TG mostraron la presencia de etringita a 23 ��C durante todas las edades de hidrataci��n exhibiendo una tendencia de aumento en la intensidad de los picos y en la cantidad, respectivamente, en funci��n del tiempo; sin embargo, a 85 ��C la presencia de esta fase fue inconstante durante las primeras edades de hidrataci��n, a partir de mes de hidrataci��n mostr�� aumento en cada una de las siguientes medidas realizadas mensualmente; a 85 ��C hubo una menor formaci��n de portlandita en comparaci��n con los resultados obtenidos a 23 ��C. Utilizando el m��todo Rietveld y an��lisis qu��mico fueron determinadas las cantidades y las composiciones qu��micas, respectivamente, de las fases del cemento anhidro y del calcario para alimentar el programa GEMS y simular la hidrataci��n de la pasta estudiada en laboratorio para un tiempo infinito bajo la influencia de la temperatura. Simulaciones de la hidrataci��n de la pasta se aproximaron a los resultados reportados por la revisi��n bibliogr��fica permitiendo predecir la presencia de fases en funci��n de la estabilidad termodin��mica. Resultados de porosimetr��a por inyecci��n de mercurio mostraron una mayor concentraci��n de poros, asociados a defectos, en muestras curadas a 85��C con respecto a las de 23 ��C. Finalmente, medidas de variaci��n longitudinal para muestras de fibrocemento elaboradas en laboratorio y en f��brica presentaron dispersi��n en los resultados de expansi��n para cada uno de los escenarios sin poder correlacionar todos los datos con el aumento de masa exhibido por cada una de las muestras; no obstante, se resalta el riesgo de deterioro del fibrocemento por el aumento de defectos causado por la temperatura as�� como la creaci��n de todas las condiciones necesarias que favorecen la formaci��n tard��a de etringita a partir del proceso de fabricaci��n empleado para este producto.

Automated Software Debugging Using Hybrid Static/Dynamic Analysis

With the increasing complexity of today's software, the software development process is becoming highly time and resource consuming. The increasing number of software configurations, input parameters, usage scenarios, supporting platforms, external dependencies, and versions plays an important role in expanding the costs of maintaining and repairing unforeseeable software faults. To repair software faults, developers spend considerable time in identifying the scenarios leading to those faults and root-causing the problems. While software debugging remains largely manual, it is not the case with software testing and verification. The goal of this research is to improve the software development process in general, and software debugging process in particular, by devising techniques and methods for automated software debugging, which leverage the advances in automatic test case generation and replay. In this research, novel algorithms are devised to discover faulty execution paths in programs by utilizing already existing software test cases, which can be either automatically or manually generated. The execution traces, or alternatively, the sequence covers of the failing test cases are extracted. Afterwards, commonalities between these test case sequence covers are extracted, processed, analyzed, and then presented to the developers in the form of subsequences that may be causing the fault. The hypothesis is that code sequences that are shared between a number of faulty test cases for the same reason resemble the faulty execution path, and hence, the search space for the faulty execution path can be narrowed down by using a large number of test cases. To achieve this goal, an efficient algorithm is implemented for finding common subsequences among a set of code sequence covers. Optimization techniques are devised to generate shorter and more logical sequence covers, and to select subsequences with high likelihood of containing the root cause among the set of all possible common subsequences. A hybrid static/dynamic analysis approach is designed to trace back the common subsequences from the end to the root cause. A debugging tool is created to enable developers to use the approach, and integrate it with an existing Integrated Development Environment. The tool is also integrated with the environment's program editors so that developers can benefit from both the tool suggestions, and their source code counterparts. Finally, a comparison between the developed approach and the state-of-the-art techniques shows that developers need only to inspect a small number of lines in order to find the root cause of the fault. Furthermore, experimental evaluation shows that the algorithm optimizations lead to better results in terms of both the algorithm running time and the output subsequence length.

Apoiando a constru����o de testes de aceita����o automatizados a partir da especifica����o de requisitos

Automation has become increasingly necessary during the software test process due to the high cost and time associated with such activity. Some tools have been proposed to automate the execution of Acceptance Tests in Web applications. However, many of them have important limitations such as the strong dependence on the structure of the HTML pages and the need of manual valuing of the test cases. In this work, we present a language for specifying acceptance test scenarios for Web applications called IFL4TCG and a tool that allows the generation of test cases from these scenarios. The proposed language supports the criterion of Equivalence Classes Partition and the tool allows the generation of test cases that meet different combination strategies (i.e., Each-Choice, Base-Choice and All Combinations). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we used the language and the associated tool for designing and executing Acceptance Tests on a module of Sistema Unificado de Administra����o P��blica (SUAP) of Instituto Federal Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN). Four Systems Analysts and one Computer Technician, which work as developers of the that system, participated in the evaluation. Preliminary results showed that IFL4TCG can actually help to detect defects in Web applications

Automatiza����o de testes funcionais utilizando a ferramenta Sikuli

This work seeks to demonstrate the advantages in functional software test automation using Sikuli tool, which uses image recognition to find the graphical elements of a system, in addition to using a custom library with methods made to automate the summarization of obtained results through the tests and their evidence

Designing the System of Remote Knowledge Diagnosing for Students of Technical Specialties

In the article the theoretical aspects of planning of the systems of the controlled from distance diagnosing of level of know ledges of students are resulted on the basis of modern pedagogical theoretical and technological approaches. The practical results of creation of the systems of this type are resulted for organization of testing both in the structure of local networks of higher educational establishments and with access through the global network of Internet.

Performance of the Vitek 2 system software version 5.03 in the bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility test: evaluation study of clinical and reference strains of Gram-positive cocci

Introduction. The genera Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus are recognized as important Gram-positive human pathogens. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Vitek 2 in identifying Gram-positive cocci and their antimicrobial susceptibilities. Methods. One hundred four isolates were analyzed to determine the accuracy of the automated system for identifying the bacteria and their susceptibility to oxacillin and vancomycin. Results. The system correctly identified 77.9% and 97.1% of the isolates at the species and genus levels, respectively. Additionally, 81.8% of the Vitek 2 results agreed with the known antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. Conclusion. Vitek 2 correctly identified the commonly isolated strains; however, the limitations of the method may lead to ambiguous findings.

Swain: Stata module to correct the SEM chi-square overidentification test in small sample sizes or complex models. Statistical Software Components S457617, Boston College Department of Economics.

Swain corrects the chi-square overidentification test (i.e., likelihood ratio test of fit) for structural equation models whethr with or without latent variables. The chi-square statistic is asymptotically correct; however, it does not behave as expected in small samples and/or when the model is complex (cf. Herzog, Boomsma, & Reinecke, 2007). Thus, particularly in situations where the ratio of sample size (n) to the number of parameters estimated (p) is relatively small (i.e., the p to n ratio is large), the chi-square test will tend to overreject correctly specified models. To obtain a closer approximation to the distribution of the chi-square statistic, Swain (1975) developed a correction; this scaling factor, which converges to 1 asymptotically, is multiplied with the chi-square statistic. The correction better approximates the chi-square distribution resulting in more appropriate Type 1 reject error rates (see Herzog & Boomsma, 2009; Herzog, et al., 2007).

Muon Detector Link System Test Setup Software

Euroopan hiukkastutkimuslaitoksen CERNin rakenteilla olevan LHC-hiukkaskiihdyttimen CMS-koeasema on tarkoitettu erityisesti myonin ilmaisuun. T��ss�� ty��ss�� on esitelty CMS-koeaseman RPC-ilmaisintyypin linkkij��rjestelm�� ja sen testaamiseen tarkoitetut laitteet sek�� laitteiden testaamiseen tarvittavat ohjelmistot. Ty��ss�� on selvitetty ohjelmien toimivuus ja keskin��inen yhteensopivuus.

Cost-benefit analysis of using test automation in the development of embedded software

The goal of this thesis is to make a case study of test automation���s profitability in the development of embedded software in a real industrial setting. The cost-benefit analysis is done by considering the costs and benefits test automation causes to software development, before the software is released to customers. The potential benefits of test automation regarding software quality after customer release were not estimated. Test automation is a significant investment which often requires dedicated resources. When done accordingly, the investment in test automation can produce major cost savings by reducing the need for manual testing effort, especially if the software is developed with an agile development framework. It can reduce the cost of avoidable rework of software development, as test automation enables the detection of construction time defects in the earliest possible moment. Test automation also has many pitfalls such as test maintainability and testability of the software, and if those areas are neglected, the investment in test automation may become worthless or it may even produce negative results. The results of this thesis suggest that test automation is very profitable at the company under study.

Programari per a l'elaboraci�� i correcci�� autom��tica d'ex��mens-test. 'Software para la elaboraci��n y correcci��n autom��tica de ex��menes-test'.

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