Characterization of the State of Practice of Test Activities in a Brazilian Software Development Scenario

• Arilo Claudio Dias Neto UFRJ
• Ana Cândida Cruz Natali UFRJ
• Ana Regina Rocha UFRJ
• Guilherme Horta Travassos UFRJ

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2006.15598

Abstract

Software testing can be applied during the software development with the purpose of improving the final product quality. However, there is a gap between the state of the art and the state of the practice regarding software testing area. There are just a few evidences concerned with effectiveness of software testing practices suggested by the technical literature in the industry. Based on this context, this paper shows the characterization of the software testing actual state for a specific software development scenario, where it has been evaluated what practices are being applied by these organizations. The results have shown the lack, limitation, and interest of these organizations in the applying of testing for their software projects.

Keywords: State of Practice, Testing Activities, Software Development

References

Anderson, C., Runeson, P. (2002) “Verification and Validation in Industry - A Qualitative Survey on the State of Practice”, In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (ISESE'02), p.37, October 03-04.

Bertolino, A. (2004) “The (Im)maturity level of software testing. SIGSOFT Softw”. Eng. Notes 29, 5, 1-4, Setembro.

Craig, R.D., Jaskiel, S. P., “Systematic Software Testing”, Artech House Publishers, Boston, 2002.

Farias, L.D. (2002) "Planejamento de Riscos em Ambientes de Desenvolvimento de Software Orientados à Organização", Dissertação de M.Sc., COPPE/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Agosto.

Frankl, P. G., Weiss, S. N., Hu, C. (1997) “All-Uses vc Mutation Testing: An Experimental Comparison of Effectiveness”, Journal of Systems and Software. Vol. 38, Pág: 235-253, Setembro.

Gelperin, D., Hetzel, B. (1988) "The Growth of Software Testing”, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 31(6), pág: 687-695.

Kim, J. M., Porter, A., Rothermel, G. (2000) “An Empirical Study of Regression Test Application Frequency”. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference of Software Engineering, Maio, Pág. 126-135. Ireland. IEEE Computer Society Press.

Li, J., Conradi, R., et al. (2005) “An Empirical Study on Off-the-Shelf Component Usage in Industrial Projects”. Proc. 6th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES'2005), Junho, Finland, Springer Verlag LNCS Vol. 3547, pp.54–68.

Pressman, R. S., “Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach”, McGraw-Hill, 6th ed, Nova York, NY, 2005.

Rocha, A. R., Maldonado, J. C., Weber, K. C., et al., “Qualidade de software – Teoria e prática”, Prentice Hall, São Paulo, 2001.

Rocha, A.R. et al., (2005) “Estação TABA: Uma Infra-estrutura para Implantação do Modelo de Referência para Melhoria de Processo de Software”, In: 3o Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software (SBQS), Porto Alegre, RS.

SEPIN (Secretaria de Política de Informática) – MCT (Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia), “Qualidade e Produtividade no Setor de Software – Resultados da Pesquisa de 2005”. http://www.mct.gov.br/sepin/Dsi/Quali2005/Public2005.htm, acessado em Março/2006.

Xexéo, J.A.M. (2001) “Sistemas de Informação como Instrumento de Programas de Qualidade”, Tese de D.Sc., COPPE/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil, dezembro.