Blogs (3) >>

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Fri 28 Feb 2025 14:41 - 15:00 at Meeting Room 407 - Debugging and Testing

Many computer science students complete their undergraduate degrees with insufficient testing skills and knowledge. To understand the gaps in students’ testing skills and knowledge, we analyzed 1014 software tests written by 12 groups in an undergraduate Software Quality Assurance (SQA) course project. In the project the student groups were provided a requirements document and were instructed to follow Test Driven Development (TDD) practices using black box tests. To understand how the groups applied black box testing in their project, we created an automatic tool to sort the tests into categories or “test buckets.” By analyzing the test bucket data we were able to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of student-written tests. We observed that the student groups were significantly more likely to test for explicit requirements than implicit requirements and significantly more likely to test happy paths than invalid inputs. Furthermore, students inefficiently tested happy paths, invalid inputs and explicit requirements resulting in a higher proportion of software tests with duplicate intent. Based on these results we provide insights into how black box test education can be improved.

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Fri 28 Feb

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

13:45 - 15:00
Debugging and TestingPapers at Meeting Room 407
13:45
18m
Talk
BugSpotter: Automated Generation of Code Debugging Exercises
Papers
Victor-Alexandru Padurean Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Paul Denny The University of Auckland, Adish Singla Max Planck Institute for Software Systems
14:03
18m
Talk
Compiler-Integrated, Conversational AI for Debugging CS1 ProgramsGlobal
Papers
Jake Renzella University of New South Wales, Sydney, Alexandra Vassar UNSW, Lorenzo Lee Solano University of New South Wales, Sydney, Andrew Taylor The University of New South Wales, Sydney
14:22
18m
Talk
“Debugging: From Art to Science” A Case Study on a Debugging Course and Its Impact on Student Performance and Confidence
Papers
G. Aaron Wilkin Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
14:41
18m
Talk
How Effective and Efficient are Student-Written Software Tests?
Papers
Amanda Showler Ontario Tech University, Michael Miljanovic Ontario Tech University, Jeremy Bradbury Ontario Tech University