Measuring testing as a distributed component of the software life cycle

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Burgin, M.^a | Debnath, N.^{b; *} | Lee, H.K.^c

Affiliations: [a] Department of Computer Science, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA | [b] Department of Computer Science, Winona State University, Winona, MN 55987, USA | [c] Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX 79762, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. E-mail: ndebnath@winona.edu.

Abstract: We study software testing as a distributed component of the software life cycle, developing a technique for estimating testing validity. The goal of this paper is to build measures for testing result estimation, to find how tested properties influence software quality, and to develop means (methodology and algorithms) to achieve better results in testing. To achieve these goals, we suggest using system approach to testing developed in this paper and introduce a system of test efficiency measures, as well as discuss a methodology of how to use these measures. Properties of test efficiency measures oriented at the software engineering domain are studied. We also show (Proposition 1, Theorem 1 and their Corollaries) how logic can increase testing efficiency.

Keywords: Software quality, testing, estimation, validation, diagnostics, software life cycle

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-2009-0249

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 9, no. s2, pp. S211-S223, 2009