Validation of Constraints Among Configuration Parameters Using Search-Based Combinatorial Interaction Testing

The appeal of highly-configurable software systems lies in their adaptability to users' needs. With the increasing number of configurable parameters, the search space of possible system states poses a challenge for software testing. Combinatorial Interaction Testing (CIT) techniques have been specifically developed to drive the systematic testing of such highly-configurable systems. In order to apply these, it is paramount to devise a model of parameter configurations which conforms to the software implementation. This is a non-trivial task. Therefore, we extend traditional search-based CIT by devising 4 new testing policies able to check if the model correctly identifies constraints among the various software parameters. Our experiments show that one of our new policies is able to detect faults both in the model and the software implementation that are missed by the standard approaches.

Speaker Bio: Angelo Gargantini is Associate professor in Computer Science of the School of Engineering at the University of Bergamo, Italy. He holds a Master in Electronic Engineering, a PhD in Software Engineering received from the Politecnico of Milan. He teaches basic and advanced courses in computer programming, verification, and testing. His research interests include formal methods, software verification and validation techniques, combinatorial testing, and test generation by model checking.

Presentation Slides: PDF

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