A Historical Perspective on Runtime Assertion Checking in Software Development

This report presents initial results in the area of software testing and analysis produced as part of the Software Engineering Impact Project. The report describes the historical development of runtime assertion checking, including a description of the origins of and significant features associated with assertion checking mechanisms, and initial findings about current industrial use. A future report will provide a more comprehensive assessment of development practice, for which we invite readers of this report to contribute information

Payload training methodology study

The results of the Payload Training Methodology Study (PTMS) are documented. Methods and procedures are defined for the development of payload training programs to be conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center Payload Training Complex (PCT) for the Space Station Freedom program. The study outlines the overall training program concept as well as the six methodologies associated with the program implementation. The program concept outlines the entire payload training program from initial identification of training requirements to the development of detailed design specifications for simulators and instructional material. The following six methodologies are defined: (1) The Training and Simulation Needs Assessment Methodology; (2) The Simulation Approach Methodology; (3) The Simulation Definition Analysis Methodology; (4) The Simulator Requirements Standardization Methodology; (5) The Simulator Development Verification Methodology; and (6) The Simulator Validation Methodology

Evaluating software verification systems: benchmarks and competitions

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 14171 “Evaluating Software Verification Systems: Benchmarks and Competitions”. The seminar brought together a large group of current and future competition organizers and participants, benchmark maintainers, as well as practitioners and researchers interested in the topic. The seminar was conducted as a highly interactive event, with a wide spectrum of contributions from participants, including talks, tutorials, posters, tool demonstrations, hands-on sessions, and a live competition

Differentially Testing Soundness and Precision of Program Analyzers

In the last decades, numerous program analyzers have been developed both by academia and industry. Despite their abundance however, there is currently no systematic way of comparing the effectiveness of different analyzers on arbitrary code. In this paper, we present the first automated technique for differentially testing soundness and precision of program analyzers. We used our technique to compare six mature, state-of-the art analyzers on tens of thousands of automatically generated benchmarks. Our technique detected soundness and precision issues in most analyzers, and we evaluated the implications of these issues to both designers and users of program analyzers

Scaling Up Automated Verification: A Case Study and a Formalization IDE for Building High Integrity Software

Component-based software verification is a difficult challenge because developers must specify components formally and annotate implementations with suitable assertions that are amenable to automation. This research investigates the intrinsic complexity in this challenge using a component-based case study. Simultaneously, this work also seeks to minimize the extrinsic complexities of this challenge through the development and usage of a formalization integrated development environment (F-IDE) built for specifying, developing, and using verified reusable software components. The first contribution is an F-IDE built to support formal specification and automated verification of object-based software for the integrated specification and programming language RESOLVE. The F-IDE is novel, as it integrates a verifying compiler with a user-friendly interface that provides a number of amenities including responsive editing for model-based mathematical contracts and code, assistance for design by contract, verification, responsive error handling, and generation of property-preserving Java code that can be run within the F-IDE. The second contribution is a case study built using the F-IDE that involves an interplay of multiple artifacts encompassing mathematical units, component interfaces, and realizations. The object-based interfaces involved are specified in terms of new mathematical models and non-trivial theories designed to encapsulate data structures and algorithms. The components are designed to be amenable to modular verification and analysis

Automated specification-based testing of graphical user interfaces

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrónica e de Computadores. 2006. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Informática, Escola de Engenharia. Universidade do Minh