Understanding class-level testability through dynamic analysis
Understanding class-level testability through dynamic analysis
复制标题
通过动态分析了解类级可测试性
DOI：
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Jim Buchan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Amjed Tahir;Stephen G. MacDonell;Jim Buchan
众所周知，软件测试既具有挑战性又耗时。了解可能对测试工作产生积极或消极影响的因素将指出减少这种工作的可能性。因此，有大量研究调查了静态代码属性和可测试性之间的关系。本文报告的工作通过对面向对象 (OO) 系统中运行时属性和类级可测试性之间的关联程度进行实证评估，对这一研究主体进行了补充。使用动态代码属性的动机来自于此类指标在提供对软件质量的多个维度的更完整洞察方面的成功。特别是，我们研究了以动态耦合和关键类为代表的生产代码的运行时特征与内部类级可测试性之间的潜在关系。这里在单元测试级别考虑类的可测试性，并使用两种不同的度量来表征这些单元测试。所选的衡量标准与测试范围和结构有关：一个旨在衡量单元测试的规模，以测试代码行表示，另一个旨在反映预期的设计，以测试用例的数量表示。在这项研究中，我们发现动态耦合和关键类与类级别的可测试性度量具有显着相关性。因此，我们建议这些属性可以用作类级别可测试性的指标。这些结果增强了我们当前的知识，并应帮助该领域的研究人员以先前关于被认为与可测试性和测试相关的因素的结果为基础。我们的结果也应该有利于未来班级可测试性规划和维护活动的从业者。
It is generally acknowledged that software testing is both challenging and time-consuming. Understanding the factors that may positively or negatively affect testing effort will point to possibilities for reducing this effort. Consequently there is a significant body of research that has investigated relationships between static code properties and testability. The work reported in this paper complements this body of research by providing an empirical evaluation of the degree of association between runtime properties and class-level testability in object-oriented (OO) systems. The motivation for the use of dynamic code properties comes from the success of such metrics in providing a more complete insight into the multiple dimensions of software quality. In particular, we investigate the potential relationships between the runtime characteristics of production code, represented by Dynamic Coupling and Key Classes, and internal class-level testability. Testability of a class is considered here at the level of unit tests and two different measures are used to characterise those unit tests. The selected measures relate to test scope and structure: one is intended to measure the unit test size, represented by test lines of code, and the other is designed to reflect the intended design, represented by the number of test cases. In this research we found that Dynamic Coupling and Key Classes have significant correlations with class-level testability measures. We therefore suggest that these properties could be used as indicators of class-level testability. These results enhance our current knowledge and should help researchers in the area to build on previous results regarding factors believed to be related to testability and testing. Our results should also benefit practitioners in future class testability planning and maintenance activities.