SoD-HCER: Testing Designs and Designing Tests

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Division Computer and Network Systems (CNS) Science of Design (SoD) Program Proposal Number: 0613793 P/I: Michael D. Ernst PI's Department: Department: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Award: $200,000 Title: "SoD-HCER: Testing Designs and Designing Tests" This proposal addresses concepts of software design and testing. The first thrust is on testing designs, exploring techniques for automatically generating tests from designs (models) that are higher-level than the code. The second thrust is on designing tests: on viewing tests as designs that can be decomposed and recomposed to create new tests with improved properties such as faster execution or better coverage. These two are related but distinct techniques, each integrates testing with a view of design in order to improve the testing process. This project's ideas are new and they have important advantages over other approaches that solve similar problems. Preliminary investigations validated their usefulness with promising results. The funding will permit careful experiments to more scientifically validate the ideas. The potential implications of the proposed work on research and practice are profound. Practitioners are eager to improve their software and their test suites, but they have limited resources and limited knowledge of and patience with formal methods. The proposed work can be viewed as one way of bridging the gap between practice and theory by applying research ideas to real-world problems. Program Manager: Anita J. La Salle Date: