The Object Management Group's (OMG) Model Driven Architecture (MDA) strategy envisages a world where models play a more direct role in software production, being amenable to manipulation and transformation by machine. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is wider in scope than MDA. MDE combines process and analysis with architecture. This article sets out a framework for model driven engineering, which can be used as a point of reference for activity in this area. It proposes an organisation of the modelling 'space' and how to locate models in that space. It discusses different kinds of mappings between models. It explains why process and architecture are tightly connected. It discusses the importance and nature of tools. It identifies the need for defining families of languages and transformations, and for developing techniques for generating/configuring tools from such definitions. It concludes with a call to align metamodelling with formal language engineering techniques.

Model Driven Engineering

Mutation testing realizes the idea of using artificial defects to support testing activities. Mutation is typically used as a way to evaluate the adequacy of test suites, to guide the generation of test cases, and to support experimentation. Mutation has reached a maturity phase and gradually gains popularity both in academia and in industry. This chapter presents a survey of recent advances, over the past decade, related to the fundamental problems of mutation testing and sets out the challenges and open problems for the future development of the method. It also collects advices on best practices related to the use of mutation in empirical studies of software testing. Thus, giving the reader a “mini-handbook”-style roadmap for the application of mutation testing as experimental methodology.

/pdf/mutation-testing-advances-an-analysis-and-survey-2wtvd7tjwe.pdf

Mutation Testing Advances: An Analysis and Survey

Context: Software product lines (SPL) are used in industry to achieve more efficient software development. However, the testing side of SPL is underdeveloped. Objective: This study aims at surveying existing research on SPL testing in order to identify useful approaches and needs for future research. Method: A systematic mapping study is launched to find as much literature as possible, and the 64 papers found are classified with respect to focus, research type and contribution type. Results: A majority of the papers are of proposal research types (64%). System testing is the largest group with respect to research focus (40%), followed by management (23%). Method contributions are in majority. Conclusions: More validation and evaluation research is needed to provide a better foundation for SPL testing.

/pdf/software-product-line-testing-a-systematic-mapping-study-27nvr0okop.pdf

Software product line testing - A systematic mapping study

ContextIn software development, Testing is an important mechanism both to identify defects and assure that completed products work as specified. This is a common practice in single-system development, and continues to hold in Software Product Lines (SPL). Even though extensive research has been done in the SPL Testing field, it is necessary to assess the current state of research and practice, in order to provide practitioners with evidence that enable fostering its further development. ObjectiveThis paper focuses on Testing in SPL and has the following goals: investigate state-of-the-art testing practices, synthesize available evidence, and identify gaps between required techniques and existing approaches, available in the literature. MethodA systematic mapping study was conducted with a set of nine research questions, in which 120 studies, dated from 1993 to 2009, were evaluated. ResultsAlthough several aspects regarding testing have been covered by single-system development approaches, many cannot be directly applied in the SPL context due to specific issues. In addition, particular aspects regarding SPL are not covered by the existing SPL approaches, and when the aspects are covered, the literature just gives brief overviews. This scenario indicates that additional investigation, empirical and practical, should be performed. ConclusionThe results can help to understand the needs in SPL Testing, by identifying points that still require additional investigation, since important aspects regarding particular points of software product lines have not been addressed yet.

A systematic mapping study of software product lines testing

Since software systems need to be continuously available under varying conditions, their ability to evolve at runtime is increasingly seen as one key issue. Modern programming frameworks already provide support for dynamic adaptations. However the high-variability of features in Dynamic Adaptive Systems (DAS) introduces an explosion of possible runtime system configurations (often called modes) and mode transitions. Designing these configurations and their transitions is tedious and error-prone, making the system feature evolution difficult. While Aspect-Oriented Modeling (AOM) was introduced to improve the modularity of software, this paper presents how an AOM approach can be used to tame the combinatorial explosion of DAS modes. Using AOM techniques, we derive a wide range of modes by weaving aspects into an explicit model reflecting the runtime system. We use these generated modes to automatically adapt the system. We validate our approach on an adaptive middleware for home-automation currently deployed in Rennes metropolis.

https://www.irisa.fr/triskell/publis/2009/Morin09a.pdf

Taming Dynamically Adaptive Systems using models and aspects

La mutacion es una tecnica de prueba de software
desarrollada por investigadores y que,
habitualmente, se ha utilizado casi de forma
exclusiva con propositos de investigacion. Unos
treinta y cinco anos despues de haber sido
propuesta, la tecnica esta hoy suficientemente
madura como para ser transferida a la industria y,
tambien, para comenzar a ser introducida en la
ensenanza reglada. Desde hace unos anos venimos
impartiendo mutacion en la asignatura “Pruebas y
seguridad de sistemas de informacion”, del Master
Oficial en Tecnologias Informaticas Avanzadas de
nuestra universidad, que cuenta con mencion de
calidad de la ANECA.
Lo cierto es que, mientras no introdujimos una
metafora, en la que se comparan los mutantes con
faltas de ortografia, y los test suites con revisores
ortotipograficos, la mutacion era dificil de
entender por parte de los alumnos o, tal vez,
eramos los profesores los que no la explicabamos
suficientemente bien.
En este trabajo describimos la metafora que
tan buenos resultados nos ha dado, asi como
algunos de los otros contenidos que impartimos,
relacionados principalmente con la aplicacion de
la tecnica y diversas estrategias para reduccion de
costes. Utilizamos una herramienta que hemos
desarrollado y que se encuentra disponible
libremente para su uso en universidades.

/pdf/ensenanza-de-la-mutacion-en-pruebas-de-software-2n2drbnt53.pdf

Enseñanza de la mutación en pruebas de software

BacterioORACLE: An Oracle suggester tool.

The objective of Software Engineering Environments (SEE) is to allow the integrated and automatic management and control of a specific process or group of processes of the software (ISO/IEC, 2000). In broader terms, the MANTIS project aims to define and construct an integral environment for the management of Software Maintenance Process (SMP). Due to the large number of different aspects that have to be considered, we have defined an architecture with 4 conceptual levels. Each of these levels incorporates concepts at a specific level of abstraction and generality. We present a proposal of a metamodel for the SMP based on the ontology formulated by Kitchenham et al.(1999) and in the Workflow Reference Model of the Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC, 1995). In so doing our aim is to incorporate in the said ontology, the aspects of process enaction that the workflow technology resolves in what we consider to be a satisfactory fashion.

/pdf/using-metamodels-and-workflows-in-a-software-maintenance-51bqb5d32o.pdf

Using metamodels and workflows in a software maintenance environment

Updating systems assembled from components demand a careful treatment due to stability risks. Replacement components must be properly evaluated to identify the required similar behaviour. Our proposal complements the regular compatibility analysis with black-box testing criteria to reinforce reliability. The aim is to analyze functions of data transformation encapsulated on components, i.e. their behaviour. This complies with the observabilitytesting metric. A Component Behaviour Test Suite is built concerning the integration level to be later applied on candidate upgrades. The approach is supported through a tool developed on our group, testooj , which is focused on Java components.

Macario Polo Usaola

Papers

Enseñanza de la mutación en pruebas de software

BacterioORACLE: An Oracle suggester tool.

Using metamodels and workflows in a software maintenance environment

Testing-Based Component Assessment for Substitutability.

Integrating techniques and tools for testing automation