A Survey on Test Script Maintenance in Software Products

PhD Qualifying Examination


Title: "A Survey on Test Script Maintenance in Software Products"

by

Mr. Huaxun HUANG


Abstract:

Test scripts are widely adopted in software products to facilitate automated 
re-testing. Developers will encode essential test steps into test scripts and 
further use test framework to replay those steps automatically. However, test 
scripts can become unusable mainly due to the evolution of software products, 
such as missing GUI widgets, invalid assertions, etc. It is well worth building 
automated test scripts because they can be executed multiple times, but its 
value is quickly offset by high maintenance costs when a lot of testing becomes 
un- available and the test script should be recreated. It is challenging and 
labour-intensive for test engineers to maintain fragile test scripts.

In this survey, we target at the research efforts toward automated maintenance 
of test scripts. The survey will first introduce the concept and background of 
test script mainte- nance in software products. We then investigate the 
empirical studies on test script main- tenance to understand the nature of test 
script breakage. The technical research works are further categorized into two 
types based on problem they target at: locator-based and event- based test 
script breakages. They will be further categorized in terms of method they have 
used. Finally, we discuss the future research opportunities on test script 
maintenance that can make existing work more effective.


Date:			Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Time:                  	10:00am - 12:00noon

Venue:                  Room 3494
                         Lifts 25/26

Committee Members:	Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung (Supervisor)
 			Dr. Kai Chen (Chairperson)
 			Dr. Wilfred Ng
 			Dr. Raymond Wong


**** ALL are Welcome ****