Using Adaptive Agents to Automatically Generate Test Scenarios from the UML Activity Diagrams

Test case generation is one of the most important issues in software testing research and industrial practice. Test scenarios are frequently used to derive test cases for scenario-based software testing. However, the generation of the test scenarios is usually a manual and labor-intensive task. It is desired that test scenarios can be automatically generated. In this paper, we propose an automated approach using adaptive agents to directly generate test scenarios from the UML activity diagrams

Prioritization of Program Elements Based on Their Testing Requirements

Even after thorough testing of a program, usually a few bugs still remain. These residual bugs are usually uniformly distributed throughout the code. It is observed that bugs in some parts of a program can cause more frequent and more severe failures compared to those in other parts. It should, then be possible to prioritize the statements, methods and classes of an object-oriented program according to their potential to cause failures. Once the program elements have been prioritized, the testing effort can be apportioned so that the elements causing most frequent failure are tested more. Based on this idea, in this paper we propose a program metric called the influence of program elements. Influence of a class indicates the potential of class to cause failures. In this approach, we have used the intermediate graph representation of a program. The influence of a class is determined through a forward slicing of the graph. Our proposed program metric can be useful in applications such as coding, debugging, test case design and maintenance etc

Técnicas para la Estimación y Planificación de Proyectos de Software con Ciclos de Vida Incremental y Paradigma Orientado a Objetos

La estimación de costos y esfuerzos sigue siendo una de las tareas más difíciles en la gestión de un proyecto de software. Esta actividad es realizada por el jefe de proyecto, quien es responsable de hacer dichas estimaciones lo más precisas posible. En la actualidad existen técnicas que permiten realizar esta labor aunque, lamentablemente, aún no hay técnicas maduras específicas para enfoques de desarrollo como la orientación a objetos o los sistemas expertos. A ello se suma el problema de la escasa información proporcionada por las técnicas de estimación existentes para su aplicación a ciclos de vida de desarrollo de software diferentes al de cascada, como, por ejemplo, los ciclos de vida incremental o iterativo. Debido a la problemática existente, se diseñó Tupuy que es un conjunto de técnicas que apoya en la estimación y planificación basada en Puntos de función para proyectos de desarrollo de software orientados a objetos que empleen un modelo de ciclo de vida incremental. Esta propuesta está conformada por tres técnicas: UML2FP, Use Case Precedence Diagram (UCPD) e Incremental-FP. UML2FP es una técnica que permite realizar el cálculo de Puntos de función con modelos orientados a objetos y UCPD apoya en la priorización o definición de la secuencia de construcción considerando la perspectiva o punto de vista del desarrollador en términos de facilidad de construcción. Con los resultados que se obtienen con UML2FP y UCPD, la técnica Incremental-FP, permite definir qué casos de uso se van a construir en cada incremento y estimar el esfuerzo que se requiere para desarrollar cada incremento. La evaluación de UML2FP y UCPD se realizó mediante experimentos controlados con alumnos de pregrado, alumnos de posgrado y profesionales con experiencia en la industria, con resultados alentadores. En el caso de Incremental-FP, la evaluación se realizó mediante proyectos de desarrollo de software con alumnos del cuarto año del programa de pregrado en Ingeniería Informática de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; habiéndose obtenido, generalmente, una diferencia menor al 20% entre el esfuerzo estimado y el esfuerzo real. Adicionalmente, en los experimentos controlados para evaluar UCPD, se pudo determinar que las relaciones propuestas por el Method Adoption Model de Moody sí se pueden confirmar con las muestras obtenidas con profesionales, pero no con alumnos de pregrado; a pesar de que los resultados cuantitativos fueron similares. Esto nos podría sugerir que la evaluación cualitativa de técnicas con alumnos de pregrado deben tomarse con precaución, mas no la cuantitativa. Abstract The estimation of effort and cost is still one of the hardest tasks in software project management. This activity is performed by the project manager who is responsible for making such estimations as accurate as possible. Currently, there are techniques to do this work, but unfortunately there are no specific mature approaches to develop object-oriented software or expert systems. Also, there is limited information provided by the techniques to utilize them in nonwaterfall life cycle models such as incremental or iterative. To address this situation, it was designed Tupuy which is a set of techniques that supports Function Point-based estimation and planning for software development projects that utilize object-oriented and incremental life cycle models. Tupuy consists of three techniques named UML2FP, Use Case Precedence Diagram (UCPD) and Incremental-FP. UML2FP is a technique that allows Function Points counting based on object-oriented models, and UCPD is a technique that addresses the problem of determining the construction sequence or prioritization of a software product from the developer's perspective in terms of ease of construction. With the results obtained through the application of UML2FP and UCPD, Incremental-FP defines which use case has to be constructed in which increment, and estimates the effort required to develop each increment. UML2FP and UCPD evaluation was performed using controlled experiments with undergraduate students, graduate students and practitioners with experience in the industry. The results obtained were satisfactory. The Incremental-FP evaluation was performed with undergraduate students from software development projects of a fourth-year course in Informatics Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In this case, the difference between the estimated effort and actual effort was usually less than 20%. In addition, from the data obtained with the controlled experiments to evaluate UCPD, it was determined that the relationships proposed by the Moody’s Method Adoption Model could be confirmed with practitioners, but not with undergraduate students. These results may suggest that the qualitative assessments of techniques with undergraduate students should be taken with caution, but not the quantitative assesments