What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives on Software Testing Research

Over the past 25 years the Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES) has evolved to become the most important event on software engineering in Brazil. Throughout these years, SBES has gathered a large body of studies in software testing. Aimed at providing an insightful understanding of what has already been published in such event, we synthesized its rich 25-year history of research on software testing. Using information drawn from this overview we attempted to highlight which types of study have been the most applied for conveying software testing efforts. We also devised a co-authorship network to obtain a bird's-eye view of which research groups and scholars have been the most prolific ones. Moreover, by performing a citation analysis of the selected studies we set out to ascertain the importance of SBES in a wider scenario. Finally, borne out by the information extracted from the studies, we shed some light on the state-of-the-art of software testing in Brazil and provide an outlook on its foreseeable future.