An Interactive Software Development Workbench based on Biomimetic Algorithms
by R. Feldt
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Based on a theory for software development that focus on the internal models of the developer this paper presents a design for an interactive workbench to support the iterative refinement of developers models. The goal for the workbench is to expose unknown features of the software being developed so that the developer can check if they correspond to his expectations. The workbench employs a biomimetic search system to find tests with novel features. The search system assembles test templates from small pieces of test code and data packaged into a cell. We describe a prototype of the workbench implemented in Ruby and focus on the module used for evolving tests. A case study show that the prototype supports development of tests that are both diverse, complete and have a meaning to the developer. Furthermore, the system can easily be extended by the developer when he comes up with new test strategies.
Bibtex
@TechReport{Feldt2002InteractiveSWDev,
author = "Robert Feldt",
title = {An Interactive Software Development Workbench based on Biomimetic Algorithms},
year = "2002",
institution = "Dept. of Computer Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg",
number = "Tech. report 02-16",
keywords = "Software Development; Biomimetics; Interactive; Testing",
url = "http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~feldt/publications/feldt_2002_wise_tech_report.html",
}