Capture-recapture in Software Unit Testing - A Case Study
| Document type: | Conference Papers |
|---|---|
| Peer reviewed: | Yes |
| Author(s): | Hanna Scott, Claes Wohlin |
| Title: | Capture-recapture in Software Unit Testing - A Case Study |
| Conference name: | Proceedings of the Second ACM-IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering and measurement |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Pagination: | 32-40 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-59593-971-5 |
| Publisher: | ACM |
| City: | Kaiserslautern, Germany |
| URI/DOI: | 10.1145/1414004.1414012 |
| ISI number: | 000266371500004 |
| Organization: | Blekinge Institute of Technology |
| Department: | School of Engineering - Dept. of Systems and Software Engineering (Sektionen för teknik – avd. för programvarusystem) School of Engineering S- 372 25 Ronneby +46 455 38 50 00 http://www.tek.bth.se/ |
| Authors e-mail: | Claes.Wohlin@bth.se |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Quantitative failure estimates for software systems are traditionally made at end of testing using software reliability growth modeling. A persistent problem with most kinds of failure estimation methods and models is the dependency on historical data. This paper presents a method for estimating the total amount of failures possible to provoke from a unit, without historical data dependency. The method combines the results from having several developers testing the same unit with capture-recapture models to create an estimate of “remaining” number of failures. The evaluation of the approach consists of two steps: first a pre-study where the tools and methods are tested in a large open source project, followed by an add-on to a project at a medium sized software company. The evaluation was a success. An estimate was created, and it can be used both as a quality gatekeeper for units and input to functional and system testing. |
| Subject: | Software Engineering\General |
| Keywords: | Unit testing, component testing, capture-recapture |
