Techniques for Testing Database Applications

Polytechnic University Of New York, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

Frankl, Phyllis G. Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY Techniques for Testing Database Applications Databases play in important role in almost every modern organization. Although considerable research effort has been devoted to assuring correctness and efficiency of database management systems, little attention has been paid to assuring the correctness of the application programs that run on these systems. Failure of database application programs can have severe economic impact, so development of techniques for testing them is of obvious importance. This research project involves development of software testing techniques targeted specifically to database application programs. It includes development of techniques for generating database states that are useful for testing the given application and techniques for checking the database state after running a test. The techniques studied are partially automated, relying on the user to supply some information and deriving other information automatically. They use the integrity constraints described in the database schema as a source of information to aid in test generation and checking. A prototype testing tool is being developed. Preliminary evaluations of the effectiveness and usability of the techniques will be performed with the aid of the tool prototype.