Ranking programs using black box testing

Abstract

We present an unbiased method for measuring the relative quality of different solutions to a programming problem. Our method is based on identifying possible bugs from program behaviour through black-box testing. The main motivation for such a method is its use in experimental evaluation of software development methods. We report on the use of our method in a small-scale such experiment, which was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of property-based testing vs. unit testing in software development.