An experimental evaluation of peer testing in the context of the teaching of software testing

Abstract

Context: Software testing is an important task in software product quality assurance. Alternatives approach for teaching and training students and professionals have been addressed in many studies, recently. In this article, peer testing is investigated as one alternative approach to mitigate the current lack of well-trained professionals. Objective: To verify the efficiency and efficacy of peer testing in order to create test cases to promote software testing education and training. Method: Conduct a controlled experiment in which subjects design and implement test cases for three small software units. Results and conclusions: In this study, it has been observed that peer testing was significantly more efficient than individual testing (with t-Test). On the other hand, it has not been observed significant differences in the efficacy of peer testing.