Modellbasiertes Regressionstesten von Varianten und Variantenversionen

The quality assurance of software product lines (SPL) achieved via testing is a crucial and challenging activity of SPL engineering. In general, the application of single-software testing techniques for SPL testing is not practical as it leads to the individual testing of a potentially vast number of variants. Testing each variant in isolation further results in redundant testing processes by means of redundant test-case executions due to the shared commonality. Existing techniques for SPL testing cope with those challenges, e.g., by identifying samples of variants to be tested. However, each variant is still tested separately without taking the explicit knowledge about the shared commonality and variability into account to reduce the overall testing effort. Furthermore, due to the increasing longevity of software systems, their development has to face software evolution. Hence, quality assurance has also to be ensured after SPL evolution by testing respective versions of variants. In this thesis, we tackle the challenges of testing redundancy as well as evolution by proposing a framework for model-based regression testing of evolving SPLs. The framework facilitates efficient incremental testing of variants and versions of variants by exploiting the commonality and reuse potential of test artifacts and test results. Our contribution is divided into three parts. First, we propose a test-modeling formalism capturing the variability and version information of evolving SPLs in an integrated fashion. The formalism builds the basis for automatic derivation of reusable test cases and for the application of change impact analysis to guide retest test selection. Second, we introduce two techniques for incremental change impact analysis to identify (1) changing execution dependencies to be retested between subsequently tested variants and versions of variants, and (2) the impact of an evolution step to the variant set in terms of modified, new and unchanged versions of variants. Third, we define a coverage-driven retest test selection based on a new retest coverage criterion that incorporates the results of the change impact analysis. The retest test selection facilitates the reduction of redundantly executed test cases during incremental testing of variants and versions of variants. The framework is prototypically implemented and evaluated by means of three evolving SPLs showing that it achieves a reduction of the overall effort for testing evolving SPLs.Testen ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Entwicklung von Softwareproduktlinien (SPL). Aufgrund der potentiell sehr großen Anzahl an Varianten einer SPL ist deren individueller Test im Allgemeinen nicht praktikabel und resultiert zudem in redundanten Testfallausführungen, die durch die Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen Varianten entstehen. Existierende SPL-Testansätze adressieren diese Herausforderungen z.B. durch die Reduktion der Anzahl an zu testenden Varianten. Jedoch wird weiterhin jede Variante unabhängig getestet, ohne dabei das Wissen über Gemeinsamkeiten und Variabilität auszunutzen, um den Testaufwand zu reduzieren. Des Weiteren muss sich die SPL-Entwicklung mit der Evolution von Software auseinandersetzen. Dies birgt weitere Herausforderungen für das SPL-Testen, da nicht nur für Varianten sondern auch für ihre Versionen die Qualität sichergestellt werden muss. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir ein Framework für das modellbasierte Regressionstesten von evolvierenden SPL vor, das die Herausforderungen des redundanten Testens und der Software-Evolution adressiert. Das Framework vereint Testmodellierung, Änderungsauswirkungsanalyse und automatische Testfallselektion, um einen inkrementellen Testprozess zu definieren, der Varianten und Variantenversionen unter Ausnutzung des Wissens über gemeinsame Funktionalität und dem Wiederverwendungspotential von Testartefakten und -resultaten effizient testet. Für die Testmodellierung entwickeln wir einen Ansatz, der Variabilitäts- sowie Versionsinformation von evolvierenden SPL gleichermaßen für die Modellierung einbezieht. Für die Änderungsauswirkungsanalyse definieren wir zwei Techniken, um zum einen Änderungen in Ausführungsabhängigkeiten zwischen zu testenden Varianten und ihren Versionen zu identifizieren und zum anderen die Auswirkungen eines Evolutionsschrittes auf die Variantenmenge zu bestimmen und zu klassifizieren. Für die Testfallselektion schlagen wir ein Abdeckungskriterium vor, das die Resultate der Auswirkungsanalyse einbezieht, um automatisierte Entscheidungen über einen Wiederholungstest von wiederverwendbaren Testfällen durchzuführen. Die abdeckungsgetriebene Testfallselektion ermöglicht somit die Reduktion der redundanten Testfallausführungen während des inkrementellen Testens von Varianten und Variantenversionen. Das Framework ist prototypisch implementiert und anhand von drei evolvierenden SPL evaluiert. Die Resultate zeigen, dass eine Aufwandsreduktion für das Testen evolvierender SPL erreicht wird

A review of slicing techniques in software engineering

Program slice is the part of program that may take the program off the path of the desired output at some point of its execution. Such point is known as the slicing criterion. This point is generally identified at a location in a given program coupled with the subset of variables of program. This process in which program slices are computed is called program slicing. Weiser was the person who gave the original definition of program slice in 1979. Since its first definition, many ideas related to the program slice have been formulated along with the numerous numbers of techniques to compute program slice. Meanwhile, distinction between the static slice and dynamic slice was also made. Program slicing is now among the most useful techniques that can fetch the particular elements of a program which are related to a particular computation. Quite a large numbers of variants for the program slicing have been analyzed along with the algorithms to compute the slice. Model based slicing split the large architectures of software into smaller sub models during early stages of SDLC. Software testing is regarded as an activity to evaluate the functionality and features of a system. It verifies whether the system is meeting the requirement or not. A common practice now is to extract the sub models out of the giant models based upon the slicing criteria. Process of model based slicing is utilized to extract the desired lump out of slice diagram. This specific survey focuses on slicing techniques in the fields of numerous programing paradigms like web applications, object oriented, and components based. Owing to the efforts of various researchers, this technique has been extended to numerous other platforms that include debugging of program, program integration and analysis, testing and maintenance of software, reengineering, and reverse engineering. This survey portrays on the role of model based slicing and various techniques that are being taken on to compute the slices

Cloud engineering is search based software engineering too

Many of the problems posed by the migration of computation to cloud platforms can be formulated and solved using techniques associated with Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE). Much of cloud software engineering involves problems of optimisation: performance, allocation, assignment and the dynamic balancing of resources to achieve pragmatic trade-offs between many competing technical and business objectives. SBSE is concerned with the application of computational search and optimisation to solve precisely these kinds of software engineering challenges. Interest in both cloud computing and SBSE has grown rapidly in the past five years, yet there has been little work on SBSE as a means of addressing cloud computing challenges. Like many computationally demanding activities, SBSE has the potential to benefit from the cloud; ‘SBSE in the cloud’. However, this paper focuses, instead, of the ways in which SBSE can benefit cloud computing. It thus develops the theme of ‘SBSE for the cloud’, formulating cloud computing challenges in ways that can be addressed using SBSE

A Review on Web Application Testing and its Current Research Directions

Testing is an important part of every software development process on which companies devote considerable time and effort. The burgeoning web applications and their proliferating economic significance in the society made the area of web application testing an area of acute importance. The web applications generally tend to take faster and quicker release cycles making their testing very challenging. The main issues in testing are cost efficiency and bug detection efficiency. Coverage-based   testing is the process of ensuring exercise of specific program elements. Coverage measurement helps determine the “thoroughness” of testing achieved. An avalanche of tools, techniques, frameworks came into existence to ascertain the quality of web applications.  A comparative study of some of the prominent tools, techniques and models for web application testing is presented. This work highlights the current research directions of some of the web application testing techniques

Revolutionizing Future Connectivity: A Contemporary Survey on AI-empowered Satellite-based Non-Terrestrial Networks in 6G

Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are expected to be a critical component of 6th Generation (6G) networks, providing ubiquitous, continuous, and scalable services. Satellites emerge as the primary enabler for NTN, leveraging their extensive coverage, stable orbits, scalability, and adherence to international regulations. However, satellite-based NTN presents unique challenges, including long propagation delay, high Doppler shift, frequent handovers, spectrum sharing complexities, and intricate beam and resource allocation, among others. The integration of NTNs into existing terrestrial networks in 6G introduces a range of novel challenges, including task offloading, network routing, network slicing, and many more. To tackle all these obstacles, this paper proposes Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a promising solution, harnessing its ability to capture intricate correlations among diverse network parameters. We begin by providing a comprehensive background on NTN and AI, highlighting the potential of AI techniques in addressing various NTN challenges. Next, we present an overview of existing works, emphasizing AI as an enabling tool for satellite-based NTN, and explore potential research directions. Furthermore, we discuss ongoing research efforts that aim to enable AI in satellite-based NTN through software-defined implementations, while also discussing the associated challenges. Finally, we conclude by providing insights and recommendations for enabling AI-driven satellite-based NTN in future 6G networks.Comment: 40 pages, 19 Figure, 10 Tables, Surve

FOAL 2004 Proceedings: Foundations of Aspect-Oriented Languages Workshop at AOSD 2004

Aspect-oriented programming is a paradigm in software engineering and FOAL logos courtesy of Luca Cardelli programming languages that promises better support for separation of concerns. The third Foundations of Aspect-Oriented Languages (FOAL) workshop was held at the Third International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development in Lancaster, UK, on March 23, 2004. This workshop was designed to be a forum for research in formal foundations of aspect-oriented programming languages. The call for papers announced the areas of interest for FOAL as including, but not limited to: semantics of aspect-oriented languages, specification and verification for such languages, type systems, static analysis, theory of testing, theory of aspect composition, and theory of aspect translation (compilation) and rewriting. The call for papers welcomed all theoretical and foundational studies of foundations of aspect-oriented languages. The goals of this FOAL workshop were to: � Make progress on the foundations of aspect-oriented programming languages. � Exchange ideas about semantics and formal methods for aspect-oriented programming languages. � Foster interest within the programming language theory and types communities in aspect-oriented programming languages. � Foster interest within the formal methods community in aspect-oriented programming and the problems of reasoning about aspect-oriented programs. The papers at the workshop, which are included in the proceedings, were selected frompapers submitted by researchers worldwide. Due to time limitations at the workshop, not all of the submitted papers were selected for presentation. FOAL also welcomed an invited talk by James Riely (DePaul University), the abstract of which is included below. The workshop was organized by Gary T. Leavens (Iowa State University), Ralf L?ammel (CWI and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), and Curtis Clifton (Iowa State University). The program committee was chaired by L?ammel and included L?ammel, Leavens, Clifton, Lodewijk Bergmans (University of Twente), John Tang Boyland (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), William R. Cook (University of Texas at Austin), Tzilla Elrad (Illinois Institute of Technology), Kathleen Fisher (AT&T Labs�Research), Radha Jagadeesan (DePaul University), Shmuel Katz (Technion�Israel Institute of Technology), Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University), Mira Mezini (Darmstadt University of Technology), Todd Millstein (University of California, Los Angeles), Benjamin C. Pierce (University of Pennsylvania), Henny Sipma (Stanford University), Mario S?udholt ( ?Ecole des Mines de Nantes), and David Walker (Princeton University). We thank the organizers of AOSD 2004 for hosting the workshop