Automated Test Production -- Complement to "Ad-hoc" Testing

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of integrating formal and empirical testing within industry realities, highlighting the gap between academic advances and practical adoption. It surveys formal testing, empirical testing, and static/dynamic analyses as complementary approaches to test production. It discusses Model Driven Development (MDD) as a promising but fragile path, detailing its benefits and drawbacks, including problems with models and the need for standardization. The authors advocate a reverse-engineering, model-then-validate approach with automation and standards to align academia with industry, and outline future work to map the state of the art and practical pathways.

Abstract

A view on software testing, taken in a broad sense and considered a important activity is presented. We discuss the methods and techniques for applying tests and the reasons we recognize make it difficult for industry to adopt the advances observed in academia. We discuss some advances in the area and briefly point out the approach we intend to follow in the search for a solution.