Using process simulation to assess the test design effort reduction of a model-based testing approach

  • Authors:

  • Eduardo Aranha;Paulo Borba

  • Affiliations:

  • Informatics Center, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil;Informatics Center, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil

  • Venue:
  • ICSP'08 Proceedings of the Software process, 2008 international conference on Making globally distributed software development a success story
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Several researches are being performed to address current softwaredevelopment problems in industry. However, quantifying the benefits of usingthese solutions in the practice is also a challenge. Usually, pilot studies are run toget evidences about these benefits. Nevertheless, it may be difficult to run thesestudies due to the required changes in the development process and the lack ofavailable resources. In this work, we address the problem of assessing the testdesign effort reduction provided by TaRGeT, a tool that supports a Model-Based Testing (MBT) approach. We used process simulation to provide evidence ofthis effort reduction in a multi-site industry. For that, we modeled, simulated andcompared the use of the current and the model-based test design processes. Weidentified interesting advantages of using process simulation, such as its reducedcosts and the possibility to analyze multiple scenarios. We also show somedrawbacks of this approach, such as the difficult to create models close to the realityand the lack of processes simulation and comparison support.