Why Research on Test-Driven Development is Inconclusive?

Ghafari, Mohammad; Gross, Timm; Fucci, Davide; Felderer, Michael

doi:10.1145/3382494.3410687

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…This process can be highly repetitive, and certain stages often require multiple iterations before proceeding to the next step. Since requirements-based testing and validation, also known as test-driven development, is a common and essential part of software development [ 2 ] and a standard procedure for programmers who must verify the code’s functionality, by reversing this process, we can automatically generate code instead of developing programs or unit testing frameworks. In this reverse scenario, we can automatically create programs based on the predefined input requirements, and by backpropagating the input- output differences, we can modify the generated code until all requirements are satisfied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated code development based on genetic programming in graphical programming language: A pilot study

Kodytek,

Bodzas,

Zidek

2024

PLoS ONE

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Continual technological advances associated with the recent automation revolution have tremendously increased the impact of computer technology in the industry. Software development and testing are time-consuming processes, and the current market faces a lack of specialized experts. Introducing automation to this field could, therefore, improve software engineers’ common workflow and decrease the time to market. Even though many code-generating algorithms have been proposed in textual-based programming languages, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of the studies deals with the implementation of such algorithms in graphical programming environments, especially LabVIEW. Due to this fact, the main goal of this study is to conduct a proof-of-concept for a requirement-based automated code-developing system within the graphical programming environment LabVIEW. The proposed framework was evaluated on four basic benchmark problems, encompassing a string model, a numeric model, a boolean model and a mixed-type problem model, which covers fundamental programming scenarios. In all tested cases, the algorithm demonstrated an ability to create satisfying functional and errorless solutions that met all user-defined requirements. Even though the generated programs were burdened with redundant objects and were much more complex compared to programmer-developed codes, this fact has no effect on the code’s execution speed or accuracy. Based on the achieved results, we can conclude that this pilot study not only proved the feasibility and viability of the proposed concept, but also showed promising results in solving linear and binary programming tasks. Furthermore, the results revealed that with further research, this poorly explored field could become a powerful tool not only for application developers but also for non-programmers and low-skilled users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated code development based on genetic programming in graphical programming language: A pilot study

Kodytek,

Bodzas,

Zidek

2024

PLoS ONE

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“…As the first step, the article's title was read, and some were removed since they were not applicable because the main focus was deviating from the main subject. For instance, papers like Towards test-driven development for FPGA-based modules across abstraction levels [23], Why research on test-driven development is inconclusive" [24], and The Perception of Test-driven Development in Computer Science -Outline for a Structured Literature Review [25] were filtered out as the main focus was, for instance, on acceptance testing or just proposing how to conduct a literature review. After this stage of the filter process, there were 127 candidates left.…”

Section: The Review Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Literature Review on the Challenges of Applying Test-Driven Development in Software Engineering

Staegemann

Volk

Perera

et al. 2022

J. Complex Syst. Inform. Model. Q.

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Due to the ongoing trend of digitalization, the importance of software for today’s society is continuously increasing. Naturally, there is also a huge interest in improving its quality, which led to a highly active research community dedicated to this aim. Consequently, a plethora of propositions, tools, and methods emerged from the corresponding efforts. One of the approaches that have become highly prominent is the concept of test-driven development (TDD) that increases the quality of created software by restructuring the development process. However, such a big change to the followed procedures is usually also accompanied by major challenges that pose a risk for the achievement of the set targets. In order to find ways to overcome them, or at least to mitigate their impact, it is necessary to identify them and to subsequently raise awareness. Furthermore, since the effect of TDD on productivity and quality is already extensively researched, this work focuses only on issues besides these aspects. For this purpose, a literature review is presented that focuses on the challenges of TDD. In doing so, challenges that can be attributed to the three categories of people, software, and process are identified and potential avenues for future research are discussed.

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“…The aforementioned related work may suggest diverging results regarding the efficacy of TDD and AUT. Ghafari et al [16] discuss some of the possible factors responsible for such conflicting results. These factors include TDD definition, participants, task, type of project, and comparison.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching C++ programming using automated unit testing and test‐driven development—Design and efficacy study

Sheikh

2022

Comp Applic In Engineering

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The best practices of agile software development have had a significant positive impact on the quality of software and time‐to‐delivery. As a result, many leading software companies employ some form of agile software development practices. Some of the most important best practices of agile software development, which have received significant attention in recent years, are automated unit testing (AUT) and test‐driven development (TDD). Both of these practices work in conjunction to provide numerous benefits. AUT leads to reduced time to test, discover bugs, fix bugs, and implement new features; wider and measurable test coverage; reproducibility, reusability, consistency, and reliability of tests; improved accuracy, regression testing, parallel testing, faster feedback cycle, reduced cost, and higher team morale. The benefits of TDD include flexible and adaptive program design, cleaner interfaces, higher code quality, maintainability, extensibility, reliability, detailed evolving specification, reduced time on bug fixes and feature implementation, reliable refactoring, and code changes, reduced cost, reduced development time, and increased programmer productivity. Unfortunately, students in introductory programming courses are generally not introduced to AUT and TDD. This leads to the development of bad programming habits and practices which become harder to change later on. By introducing the students earlier to these industry‐standard best practices, not only the motivation and interest of students in this area can be increased but also their academic success and job marketability can be enhanced. This paper presents the detailed design and efficacy study of an introductory C++ programming course designed using the principles of AUT and TDD. The paper presents the pedagogical techniques employed to build industry‐proven agile software development practices in the students. As part of the paper, all the course material including the source code for the labs and the automated unit tests are being made available to encourage people to incorporate these best practices into their curricula.

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Why Research on Test-Driven Development is Inconclusive?

Cited by 14 publications

References 40 publications

Automated code development based on genetic programming in graphical programming language: A pilot study

Automated code development based on genetic programming in graphical programming language: A pilot study

A Literature Review on the Challenges of Applying Test-Driven Development in Software Engineering

Teaching C++ programming using automated unit testing and test‐driven development—Design and efficacy study

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