Adaptive random testing (ART) has been proposed as an enhancement to random
testing for situations where failure-causing inputs are clustered together. The basic
idea of ART is to evenly spread test cases throughout the input domain. It has
been shown by simulations and empirical analysis that ART frequently outperforms
random testing. However, there are some outstanding issues on the cost-effectiveness
and practicality of ART, which are the main foci of this thesis.
Firstly, this thesis examines the basic factors that have an impact on the faultdetection
effectiveness of adaptive random testing, and identifies favourable and
unfavourable conditions for ART. Our study concludes that favourable conditions
for ART occur more frequently than unfavourable conditions. Secondly, since all
previous studies allow duplicate test cases, there has been a concern whether adaptive
random testing performs better than random testing because ART uses fewer
duplicate test cases. This thesis confirms that it is the even spread rather than less
duplication of test cases which makes ART perform better than RT. Given that the
even spread is the main pillar of the success of ART, an investigation has been conducted
to study the relevance and appropriateness of several existing metrics of even
spreading. Thirdly, the practicality of ART has been challenged for nonnumeric or
high dimensional input domains. This thesis provides solutions that address these
concerns. Finally, a new problem solving technique, namely, mirroring, has been
developed. The integration of mirroring with adaptive random testing has been
empirically shown to significantly increase the cost-effectiveness of ART.
In summary, this thesis significantly contributes to both the foundation and the
practical applications of adaptive random testing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216604 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Kuo, Fei-Ching, n/a |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Fei-Ching Kuo |
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