On Supporting Android Software Developers And Testers

Users entrust mobile applications (apps) to help them with different tasks in their daily lives. However, for each app that helps to finish a given task, there are a plethora of other apps in popular marketplaces that offer similar or nearly identical functionality. This makes for a competitive market where users will tend to favor the highest quality apps in most cases. Given that users can easily get frustrated by apps which repeatedly exhibit bugs, failures, and crashes, it is imperative that developers promptly fix problems both before and after the release. However, implementing and maintaining high quality apps is difficult due to unique problems and constraints associated with the mobile development process such as fragmentation, quick feature changes, and agile software development. This dissertation presents an empirical study, as well as several approaches for developers, testers and designers to overcome some of these challenges during the software development life cycle. More specifically, first we perform an in-depth analysis of developers’ needs on automated testing techniques. This included surveying 102 contributors of open source Android projects about practices for testing their apps. The major findings from this survey illustrate that developers: (i) rely on usage models for designing test app cases, (ii) prefer expressive automated generated test cases organized around use cases, (iii) prefer manual testing over automation due to reproducibility issues, and (iv) do not perceive that code coverage is an important measure of test case quality. Based on the findings from the survey, this dissertation presents several approaches to support developers and testers of Android apps in their daily tasks. In particular, we present the first taxonomy of faults in Android apps. This taxonomy is derived from a manual analysis of 2,023 software artifacts extracted from six different sources (e.g., stackoverflow and bug reports). The taxonomy is divided into 14 categories containing 262 specific types. Then, we derived 38 Android-specific mutation operators from the taxonomy. Additionally, we implemented the infrastructure called MDroid+ that automatically introduces mutations in Android apps. Third, we present a practical automation for crowdsourced videos of mobile apps called V2S. This solution automatically translates video recordings of mobile executions into replayable user scenarios. V2S uses computer vision and adopts deep learning techniques to identify user interactions from video recordings that illustrate bugs or faulty behaviors in mobile apps. Last but not least, we present an approach that aims at supporting the maintenance process by facilitating the way users report bugs for Android apps. It comprises the interaction between an Android and a web app that assist the reporter by automatically collecting relevant information

Predictores cognitivos de la toma de decisiones en la experiencia de los síntomas de Síndrome Coronario Agudo

Objetivo: Determinar el valor predictivo de la Evaluación cognitiva, la Severidad de los síntomas, el Control personal y la Autoeficacia sobre la toma de decisiones en la experiencia de los síntomas de Síndrome Coronario Agudo. Diseño: La presente investigación es de tipo correlacional predictivo de corte transversal, cuyo propósito fue conocer los efectos entre las variables independientes Evaluación Cognitiva, Severidad de los síntomas, Control personal, Auto eficiencia y dependiente Toma de decisiones, a partir de las proposiciones teóricas del Modelo Conceptual del Manejo de los síntomas, mediante la obtención de datos en la experiencia de los síntomas de Síndrome Coronario Agudo en tres instituciones de la ciudad de Bogotá. Análisis: Se realizó un análisis descriptivo de la población estudiada empleando herramientas y técnicas de la estadística descriptiva . Para el análisis bivariado se definieron las variables dependientes e independientes. Las pruebas de hipótesis que se utilizaron fueron determinadas por la naturaleza y el nivel de medición de la variable dependiente, la distribución normal o no y el número de categorías que tomaron. Por lo tanto, para las variables dependientes cuantitativas las pruebas utilizadas fueron la U de Mann Whitney o la prueba de Kruskal Wallis (ANOVA), dependiendo si siguieron una distribución normal. Posteriormente con el fin de abordar las hipótesis de esta investigación en las cuales se predice la Evaluación cognitiva, la Severidad de los síntomas, el Control Personal y la Autoeficacia sobre la toma de decisiones, se realizó un Modelo Lineal Generalizado, considerando que este modelo permite unificar tanto los modelos como las variables de respuesta numérica y categórica, lo cual lleva a considerar datos dicotómicos, ordinales, categóricos o de elecciones discretas, es decir, de modelos de probabilidad de un evento. Por último se desarrolló un Modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para realizar una comprobación del modelo conceptual, que permitió establecer las relaciones causales, es decir, se examinó el efecto de una variable explicativa sobre la explicada, y en qué medida la variación observada fue debida a los cambios producidos en las variables explicativas. Resultados: Se logró la validación de los instrumentos RSQ, CISS-21, CSE, CAS-R en versión español, al instrumento IES se le realizó un aporte a la medición por medio del análisis factorial confirmatorio. Se plantearon tres modelos predictivos por medio del software R y se realizó una comprobación del modelo conceptual para el manejo de los síntomas por medio del planteamiento de ecuaciones estructurales con el software IMOS. Finalmente se plantearon dos rutas de atención en salud, desde la prevención cardiovascular y una ruta de la experiencia del síntoma específica de mujeres con síndrome coronario agudo a partir de lo reportado en los modelos predictivos. Palabras Clave: Toma de decisiones, Evaluación cognitiva, Severidad de síntomas, Control personal, Auto eficiencia, Síndrome Coronario Agudo.Abstract: Objective: To determine the predictive value of the Cognitive Assessment, the Severity of the symptoms, the Personal Control and the Self-efficacy on the decision making in the experience of the symptoms of Acute Coronary Syndrome. Design: The present investigation was of a cross-sectional predictive correlation type, whose purpose was to know the effects between independent variables (Cognitive Evaluation, Severity of the symptoms, Personal control, Self efficiency) and dependent (Decision making), from the Theoretical propositions of the Conceptual Model of the Management of the symptoms, by obtaining data in the experience of the symptoms of Acute Coronary Syndrome in men and women in three institutions of the city of Bogotá. Analysis: A descriptive analysis of the studied population was carried out, for which tools and techniques of descriptive statistics will be used. For the bivariate analysis, the dependent and independent variables were defined. The hypothesis tests that were used were determined by the nature and level of measurement of the dependent variable, the normal distribution or not and the number of categories that they took. Therefore, for the quantitative dependent variables, the tests used were the Mann Whitney U test or the Kruskal Wallis test (ANOVA), depending on whether they followed a normal distribution. Subsequently, in order to address the hypotheses of this research in which Cognitive Assessment, Severity of symptoms, Personal Control and Self-efficacy on decision making are predicted, a Generalized Linear Model was carried out, considering that this model allows unify both the models and the numerical and categorical response variables, which leads to consider dichotomous, ordinal, categorical or discrete election data, that is, probability models of an event. Finally, a Model of structural equations was developed to make a verification of the conceptual model, which allowed to establish the causal relationships, that is, I examined the effect of an explanatory variable on the explained one, and to what extent the observed variation of this one is due to the changes produced in that one. Results: Validation of the RSQ, CISS-21, CSE, CAS-R instruments was achieved and the IES instrument made a contribution to the measurement by means of factor analysis and reliability. Three predictive models were proposed by means of software R and a verification of the conceptual model for symptom management was carried out by means of the structural equations approach with the IMOS software. Finally two health care routes were proposed, from the cardiovascular prevention and a route of the experience of the symptom of women with acute coronary syndrome.Doctorad

FUSION: A Tool for Facilitating and Augmenting Android Bug Reporting

As the popularity of mobile smart devices continues to climb the complexity of apps continues to increase, making the development and maintenance process challenging. Current bug tracking systems lack key features to effectively support construction of reports with actionable information that directly lead to a bug\u27s resolution. In this demo we present the implementation of a novel bug reporting system, called FUSION, that facilitates users including reproduction steps in bug reports for mobile apps. FUSION links user-provided information to program artifacts extracted through static and dynamic analysis performed before testing or release. Results of preliminary studies demonstrate that FUSION both effectively facilitates reporting and allows for more reliable reproduction of bugs from reports compared to traditional issue tracking systems by presenting more detailed contextual app information. Tool website: www.fusion-android.com Video url: https://youtu.be/AND9h0E1xR

How do Developers Test Android Applications?

Enabling fully automated testing of mobile applications has recently become an important topic of study for both researchers and practitioners. A plethora of tools and approaches have been proposed to aid mobile developers both by augmenting manual testing practices and by automating various parts of the testing process. However, current approaches for automated testing fall short in convincing developers about their benefits, leading to a majority of mobile testing being performed manually. With the goal of helping researchers and practitioners - who design approaches supporting mobile testing - to understand developer's needs, we analyzed survey responses from 102 open source contributors to Android projects about their practices when performing testing. The survey focused on questions regarding practices and preferences of developers/testers in-the-wild for (i) designing and generating test cases, (ii) automated testing practices, and (iii) perceptions of quality metrics such as code coverage for determining test quality. Analyzing the information gleaned from this survey, we compile a body of knowledge to help guide researchers and professionals toward tailoring new automated testing approaches to the need of a diverse set of open source developers.Comment: 11 pages, accepted to the Proceedings of the 33rd IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME'17

LA POLITIQUE D’ÉDUCATION POPULAIRE ET PARTICIPATION CIVIQUE

This paper reviews and investigates the analysis that exists in the construction of citizenship through popular education, leading to enhance opportunities for citizen participation through mass recognition of institutions designed to control the activity of their representatives as well as the legal tools to visualize their participatory action, both through direct and face exercise as interactive media.El presente artículo revisa e investiga el análisis que existe en la construcción de ciudadanía a través de la educación popular, que lleva a reforzar los espacios de participación ciudadana, a través del reconocimiento masivo de las instituciones diseñadas para ejercer control a la actividad de sus representantes, así como también de las herramientas jurídicas que permiten visibilizar su acción participativa, tanto por medio del ejercicio directo y presencial como por medios interactivos. Ce document examine et étudie l’analyse qui existe dans la construction de la citoyenneté par l’éducation populaire, conduisant à améliorer les possibilités de participation des citoyens à travers la reconnaissance de masse des institutions destinées à contrôler l’activité de leurs représentants ainsi que les outils juridiques pour visualiser leur action participative, à la fois grâce à l’exercice direct et le visage que les médias interactifs

The Impact of API Change- and Fault-Proneness on the User Ratings of Android Apps

The mobile apps market is one of the fastest growing areas in the information technology. In digging their market share, developers must pay attention to building robust and reliable apps. In fact, users easily get frustrated by repeated failures, crashes, and other bugs; hence, they abandon some apps in favor of their competition. In this paper we investigate how the fault-and change-proneness of APIs used by Android apps relates to their success estimated as the average rating provided by the users to those apps. First, in a study conducted on 5,848 (free) apps, we analyzed how the ratings that an app had received correlated with the fault-and change-proneness of the APIs such app relied upon. After that, we surveyed 45 professional Android developers to assess (i) to what extent developers experienced problems when using APIs, and (ii) how much they felt these problems could be the cause for unfavorable user ratings. The results of our studies indicate that apps having high user ratings use APIs that are less fault-and change-prone than the APIs used by low rated apps. Also, most of the interviewed Android developers observed, in their development experience, a direct relationship between problems experienced with the adopted APIs and the users\u27 ratings that their apps received

Assessing the Quality of the Steps to Reproduce in Bug Reports

A major problem with user-written bug reports, indicated by developers and documented by researchers, is the (lack of high) quality of the reported steps to reproduce the bugs. Low-quality steps to reproduce lead to excessive manual effort spent on bug triage and resolution. This paper proposes Euler, an approach that automatically identifies and assesses the quality of the steps to reproduce in a bug report, providing feedback to the reporters, which they can use to improve the bug report. The feedback provided by Euler was assessed by external evaluators and the results indicate that Euler correctly identified 98% of the existing steps to reproduce and 58% of the missing ones, while 73% of its quality annotations are correct.Comment: In Proceedings of the 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE '19), August 26-30, 2019, Tallinn, Estoni