Mining Software Repositories and Information Visualization for Empirically Robust Testing of Variable Software

挖掘软件存储库和信息可视化，以对可变软件进行实证稳健测试

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-05421
• 负责人: LopezHerrejon, RobertoErick
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: École de technologie supérieure
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=754245
• 关键词: Mining; Software; Repositories; Information; Visualization

In modern software systems "one-size fits all" does not hold because they must be customized to fit the needs of diverse and large populations of users. Variable software refers to this type of software systems that can be configured in a large number of ways, and that stem primarily from the adoption of generator-based techniques, full-blown Software Product Line (SPL) approaches, advanced modularization paradigms, highly-configurable systems, or ad hoc reuse practices collectively called clone-and-own. Testing variable software is specially challenging because of the typically large number of configurations that must be tested, a fact that makes it unfeasible to test each individual configuration. Combinatorial Interaction Testing (CIT) has been advocated as a paradigm to address this challenge because of the diverse set of algorithms available which can be exploited to compute representative groups of configurations for testing. There are however several open problems that this research program aims to tackle. First, there is a critical lack of publicly-available case studies of variable software on which to empirically evaluate and validate CIT techniques. Second, there is a stark need of a thorough empirical and comparative evaluation of different CIT techniques that have been applied to variable software. Third, there is no adequate tool support for testing of variable software. The current practice is an ad-hoc collection of uncoordinated and incomplete assortment of plug-ins and stand-alone tools.The objectives for this research program are:1) Exploit techniques for mining software repositories to gather publicly-available case studies of variable software systems for a thorough empirical evaluation of CIT techniques applied to variable software. 2) Perform a systematic assessment of CIT techniques applied to variable software. 3) Leverage information visualization techniques to better convey the large amount of information present in variable software case studies. 4) Provide robust tool support that allows software engineers to design, implement, and carry out test of variable software.The first objective will be achieved by studying open source projects available in repositories such as GitHub and developing tools that mine configuration and fault data. For the second objective we will systematically collect and catalog tools for CIT testing of variable software, and evaluate them with the case studies' data of the first objective. For the third objective we will explore and evaluate different visualization techniques to convey all the distinct types of information that must be considered for making adequate engineering decisions when testing variable software. For the fourth objective, we will develop a framework that allows flexible addition of testing tools and visualization interfaces to provide software engineers with robust tool support of testing tasks.

在现代软件系统中，“一刀切”并不成立，因为必须对它们进行定制才能满足多样化和大量用户的需求。可变软件是指这种类型的软件系统，可以通过多种方式进行配置，主要源于采用基于生成器的技术、成熟的软件产品线（SPL）方法、先进的模块化范例、高度集成的软件系统。可配置系统，或统称为“克隆并拥有”的临时重用实践。测试可变软件特别具有挑战性，因为通常必须测试大量配置，这一事实使得测试每个单独的配置变得不可行。 组合交互测试 (CIT) 已被提倡作为解决这一挑战的范例，因为可用的算法集多种多样，可用于计算用于测试的代表性配置组。然而，该研究计划旨在解决几个悬而未决的问题。首先，严重缺乏可用于对 CIT 技术进行实证评估和验证的可变软件的公开案例研究。其次，迫切需要对应用于可变软件的不同 CIT 技术进行彻底的实证和比较评估。第三，没有足够的工具支持可变软件的测试。当前的实践是不协调和不完整的插件和独立工具的临时集合。该研究计划的目标是：1）利用挖掘软件存储库的技术来收集可变软件的公开案例研究用于对应用于可变软件的 CIT 技术进行彻底的实证评估的系统。 2) 对应用于可变软件的 CIT 技术进行系统评估。 3) 利用信息可视化技术更好地传达可变软件案例研究中存在的大量信息。 4）提供强大的工具支持，使软件工程师能够设计、实现和执行可变软件的测试。第一个目标将通过研究GitHub等存储库中可用的开源项目并开发挖掘配置和故障数据的工具来实现。 对于第二个目标，我们将系统地收集和编目用于可变软件的 CIT 测试的工具，并使用第一个目标的案例研究数据对其进行评估。对于第三个目标，我们将探索和评估不同的可视化技术，以传达在测试可变软件时做出适当的工程决策时必须考虑的所有不同类型的信息。对于第四个目标，我们将开发一个可以灵活添加测试工具和可视化界面的框架，为软件工程师提供测试任务的强大工具支持。