Extraction of test cases procedures from textual use cases: is it worth it?

Abstract

Software testing plays a major role in the quality of software since it assures that the software complies with its expected behavior. However, this is an expensive activity and, thus, companies usually do not perform testing activities on software projects due to the time required. These costs may be even higher in testing processes that rely only on manual test execution, which is both time-consuming and error-prone. One strategy commonly used to mitigate these costs is to use tools to automate testing activities such as test execution, test documentation, and test case generation. This paper presents an experience report in the context of a Test Factory about the use of a tool that partially automates the specification of test procedures from textual use cases. This tool automatically retrieves use cases from the requirement management system, generates the test case procedures, requires inputs from the tester, and then sends the test cases to the test management system. This paper details how this tool was used in real releases of an industrial software project. We also evaluated our tool with four test analysts from a different project to gather more data regarding its efficiency to support the test case documentation.