A systematic review on regression test selection techniques

Regression testing is verifying that previously functioning software remains after a change. With the goal of finding a basis for further research in a joint industry-academia research project, we conducted a systematic review of empirical evaluations of regression test selection techniques. We identified 27 papers reporting 36 empirical studies, 21 experiments and 15 case studies. In total 28 techniques for regression test selection are evaluated. We present a qualitative analysis of the findings, an overview of techniques for regression test selection and related empirical evidence. No technique was found clearly superior since the results depend on many varying factors. We identified a need for empirical studies where concepts are evaluated rather than small variations in technical implementations

Search based software engineering: Trends, techniques and applications

© ACM, 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version is available from the link below.In the past five years there has been a dramatic increase in work on Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE), an approach to Software Engineering (SE) in which Search-Based Optimization (SBO) algorithms are used to address problems in SE. SBSE has been applied to problems throughout the SE lifecycle, from requirements and project planning to maintenance and reengineering. The approach is attractive because it offers a suite of adaptive automated and semiautomated solutions in situations typified by large complex problem spaces with multiple competing and conflicting objectives. This article provides a review and classification of literature on SBSE. The work identifies research trends and relationships between the techniques applied and the applications to which they have been applied and highlights gaps in the literature and avenues for further research.EPSRC and E

A Mapping Study of scientific merit of papers, which subject are web applications test techniques, considering their validity threats

Progress in software engineering requires (1) more empirical studies of quality, (2) increased focus on synthesizing evidence, (3) more theories to be built and tested, and (4) the validity of the experiment is directly related with the level of confidence in the process of experimental investigation. This paper presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative classification of the threats to the validity of software engineering experiments comprising a total of 92 articles published in the period 2001-2015, dealing with software testing of Web applications. Our results show that 29.4% of the analyzed articles do not mention any threats to validity, 44.2% do it briefly, and 14% do it judiciously; that leaves a question: these studies have scientific value

Cost-efficient design and production of flexible and re-usable near real-time tactical human-machine interfaces

International audienceMaking complex systems accessible to human operators supposes to design HMIs that provide the operator with means to manage the complexity in an efficient manner. This is particularly true in the aeronautics domain for tactical HMIs where complexity is present in many dimensions. Current technical requirements, such as being able to display thousands of objects updated on the basis of time intervals inferior to half a second, coupled with economic requirements such as manning and cost reductions, make this issue even more crucial. We present our approach to the design and production of near real-time tactical HMIs, that enables us to devise HMIs that meet such requirements while being flexible enough to be re- used in a wide variety of contexts and produced at a reasonable cost

A SECURITY-CENTRIC APPLICATION OF PRECISION TIME PROTOCOL WITHIN ICS/SCADA SYSTEMS

Industrial Control System and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (ICS/SCADA) systems are key pieces of larger infrastructure that are responsible for safely operating transportation, industrial operations, and military equipment, among many other applications. ICS/SCADA systems rely on precise timing and clear communication paths between control elements and sensors. Because ICS/SCADA system designs place a premium on timeliness and availability of data, security ended up as an afterthought, stacked on top of existing (insecure) protocols. As precise timing is already resident and inherent in most ICS/SCADA systems, a unique opportunity is presented to leverage existing technology to potentially enhance the security of these systems. This research seeks to evaluate the utility of timing as a mechanism to mitigate certain types of malicious cyber-based operations such as a man-on-the-side (MotS) attack. By building a functioning ICS/SCADA system and communication loop that incorporates precise timing strategies in the reporting and control loop, specifically the precision time protocol (PTP), it was shown that certain kinds of MotS attacks can be mitigated by leveraging precise timing.Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group, Suitland, MDLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Final Assembly, Testing and Processing of the Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment (RIGEX) for Spaceflight Qualification

The purpose of this research is to complete the building, testing, verification, and qualification of the Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment (RIGEX) for spaceflight. The process of qualifying a payload for spaceflight is discussed, specifically addressing the issues of operability and survivability verification of a general payload. The spaceflight qualification process is then applied to the RIGEX payload at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and at the Johnson Spaceflight Center (JSC) in Houston, TX, capstoning the work of 12 masters students and 3 summer interns that has already gone into the RIGEX project over the last 7 years. The culmination of this effort is the necessary documentation required to turn the RIGEX payload over to the National Air and Space Association (NASA) in preparation for its launch in February 2008

Exploring regression testing and software product line testing - research and state of practice

In large software organizations with a product line development approach a selective testing of product variants is necessary in order to keep pace with the decreased development time for new products, enabled by the systematic reuse. The close relationship between products in product line indicates an option to reduce the testing effort due to redundancy. In many cases test selection is performed manually, based on test leaders’ expertise. This makes the cost and quality of the testing highly dependent on the skills and experience of the test leaders. There is a need in industry for systematic approaches to test selection. The goal of our research is to improve the control of the testing and reduce the amount of redundant testing in the product line context by applying regression test selection strategies. In this thesis, the state of art of regression testing and software product line testing are explored. Two extensive systematic reviews are conducted as well as an industrial survey of regression testing state of practice and an industrial evaluation of a pragmatic regression test selection strategy. Regression testing is not an isolated one-off activity, but rather an activity of varying scope and preconditions, strongly dependent on the context in which it is applied. Several techniques for regression test selection are proposed and evaluated empirically but in many cases the context is too specific for a technique to be easily applied directly by software developers. In order to improve the possibility for generalizing empirical results on regression test selection, guidelines for reporting the testing context are discussed in this thesis. Software product line testing is a relatively new research area. The understanding about challenges is well established but when looking for solutions to these challenges, we mostly find proposals, and empirical evaluations are sparse. Regression test selection strategies proposed in literature are not easily applicable in the product line context. Instead, control may be increased by increased visibility of the effects of testing and proper measurements of software quality. Focus of our future work will be on how to guide the planning and assessment of regression testing activities in large, complex reuse based systems, by visualizing the quality achieved in different parts of the system and evaluating the effects of different selection strategies when applied in various regression testing situations

SUTMS - Unified Threat Management Framework for Home Networks

Home networks were initially designed for web browsing and non-business critical applications. As infrastructure improved, internet broadband costs decreased, and home internet usage transferred to e-commerce and business-critical applications. Today’s home computers host personnel identifiable information and financial data and act as a bridge to corporate networks via remote access technologies like VPN. The expansion of remote work and the transition to cloud computing have broadened the attack surface for potential threats. Home networks have become the extension of critical networks and services, hackers can get access to corporate data by compromising devices attacked to broad- band routers. All these challenges depict the importance of home-based Unified Threat Management (UTM) systems. There is a need of unified threat management framework that is developed specifically for home and small networks to address emerging security challenges. In this research, the proposed Smart Unified Threat Management (SUTMS) framework serves as a comprehensive solution for implementing home network security, incorporating firewall, anti-bot, intrusion detection, and anomaly detection engines into a unified system. SUTMS is able to provide 99.99% accuracy with 56.83% memory improvements. IPS stands out as the most resource-intensive UTM service, SUTMS successfully reduces the performance overhead of IDS by integrating it with the flow detection mod- ule. The artifact employs flow analysis to identify network anomalies and categorizes encrypted traffic according to its abnormalities. SUTMS can be scaled by introducing optional functions, i.e., routing and smart logging (utilizing Apriori algorithms). The research also tackles one of the limitations identified by SUTMS through the introduction of a second artifact called Secure Centralized Management System (SCMS). SCMS is a lightweight asset management platform with built-in security intelligence that can seamlessly integrate with a cloud for real-time updates

Identify impacts of evolving third party components on long-living software systems

Abstract-Integrating 3rd party components in software systems provides promising advantages but also risks due to disconnected evolution cycles. Deciding whether to migrate to a newer version of a 3rd party component integrated into self-implemented code or to switch to a different one is a challenging task. Dedicated evolution support for 3rd party component scenarios is hence required. Existing approaches such as Clarkson, Kotoyana, and Zheng do not account for open source components which allow accessing and analyzing their source code and project information. The approach presented in this paper combines analyses for code dependency, code quality, and bug tracker information for a holistic view on the evolution with 3rd party components. We applied the approach in a case study on a communication middleware component for industrial devices used at ABB. We identified 7 methods potentially impacted by changes of 3rd party components despite the absence of interface changes. We further identified self-implemented code that does not need any manual investigation after 3rd party component evolution which was not obvious before, as well as a positive trend of code and bug tracker issues