A systematic literature review on transformation for testability techniques in software systems

IF 4.3 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-05-14 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107788

Fateme Bagheri-Galle , Saeed Parsa , Morteza Zakeri

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context

Software testability is a critical aspect of software development, enabling efficient error identification during testing. Program transformation techniques, mainly refactoring, play a key role in enhancing testability by simplifying the process of identifying and addressing potential issues. By improving testability, developers empower themselves to create more dependable software products.

Objective

Our study aims to conduct a systematic literature review focused on transformation techniques for improving testability in software systems. By analyzing existing research, we seek to provide insights into effective strategies for enhancing testability and addressing critical issues in software development.

Method

We queried six digital libraries, resulting in over 5000 articles. After rigorous analysis, we narrowed our focus to 39 primary research papers. Based on a novel hierarchical classification of the approaches used to enhance testability, the selected articles were analyzed considering the refactoring techniques, software metrics, and code smells affecting testability at the design and code levels.

Results

Our investigation revealed that among our findings, 53.8 % of the papers specifically employed refactoring for testability, while 46.2 % utilized testability transformation techniques. Only one study provided structured sequences of refactoring for testability. The studies primarily focused on three testing levels: unit testing, regression testing, and graphical user interface (GUI) testing. Notably, unit testing received the most attention, appearing in 71.8 % of the studies. About 64.1 % of the studies involved software projects written in the Java programming language. The results suggest that removing code smells and anti-patterns through refactoring would increase testability.

Conclusion

While transformation techniques are essential to increase testability and often improve it, more research is needed to address this critical issue. Additionally, exploring other levels of testing beyond unit testing and using software projects with languages beyond Java is essential. To enhance testability, it is necessary to provide more refactoring sequences aimed at improving testability.

查看原文本刊更多论文

软件系统中可测试性技术转换的系统文献综述

软件可测试性是软件开发的一个关键方面，可以在测试期间有效地识别错误。程序转换技术，主要是重构，通过简化识别和处理潜在问题的过程，在增强可测试性方面发挥了关键作用。通过提高可测试性，开发人员可以创建更可靠的软件产品。我们的研究旨在进行一个系统的文献综述，聚焦于提高软件系统可测试性的转换技术。通过分析现有的研究，我们试图为增强可测试性和解决软件开发中的关键问题提供有效策略的见解。方法查询6家数字图书馆，检索文献5000余篇。经过严格的分析，我们将重点缩小到39篇主要研究论文。基于用于增强可测试性的方法的新颖分层分类，考虑到重构技术、软件度量和影响设计和代码级别可测试性的代码气味，对所选文章进行了分析。结果我们的调查显示，在我们的发现中，53.8%的论文专门使用重构来实现可测试性，而46.2%的论文使用了可测试性转换技术。只有一项研究为可测试性提供了结构化的重构序列。这些研究主要集中在三个测试级别：单元测试、回归测试和图形用户界面（GUI）测试。值得注意的是，单元测试受到了最多的关注，出现在71.8%的研究中。大约64.1%的研究涉及用Java编程语言编写的软件项目。结果表明，通过重构消除代码异味和反模式将提高可测试性。虽然转换技术对于增加可测试性和经常改进它是必不可少的，但需要更多的研究来解决这个关键问题。此外，探索单元测试以外的其他级别的测试和使用Java以外的语言的软件项目是必不可少的。为了增强可测试性，有必要提供更多旨在提高可测试性的重构序列。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.