Software Testing and Analysis: Process, Principles and Techniques

This book addresses software test and analysis in the context of an overall effort to achieve quality. It is designed for use as a primary textbook for a course in software test and analysis or as a supplementary text in a software engineering course, and as a resource for software developers. The main characteristics of this book are: - It assumes that the reader's goal is to achieve a suitable balance of cost, schedule, and quality. It is not oriented toward critical systems for which ultra-high reliability must be obtained regardless of cost, nor will it be helpful if one's aim is to cut cost or schedule regardless of consequence. - It presents a selection of techniques suitable for near-term application, with sufficient technical background to understand their domain of applicability and to consider variations to suit technical and organizational constraints. Techniques of only historical interest and techniques that are unlikely to be practical in the near future are omitted. - It promotes a vision of software testing and analysis as integral to modern software engineering practice, equally as important and technically demanding as other aspects of development. This vision is generally consistent with current thinking on the subject, and is approached by some leading organizations, but is not universal. - It treats software testing and static analysis techniques together in a coherent framework, as complementary approaches for achieving adequate quality at acceptable cost. One cannot ``test quality into'' a badly constructed software product, but neither can one build quality into a product without test and analysis. The goal of acceptable quality at acceptable cost is both a technical and a managerial challenge, and meeting the goal requires a grasp of both the technical issues and their context in software development. It is widely acknowledged today that software quality assurance should not be a phase between development and deployment, but rather a set of ongoing activities interwoven with every task from initial requirements gathering through evolution of the deployed product. Realization of this vision in practice is often only partial. It requires careful choices and combinations of techniques fit to the organization, products, and processes, but few people are familiar with the full range of techniques, from inspection to testing to automated analyses. Those best positioned to shape the organization and its processes are seldom familiar with the technical issues, and vice versa. Moreover, there still persists in many organizations a perception that quality assurance requires less skill or background than other aspects of development. This book provides students with a coherent view of the state of the art and practice, and provides developers and managers with technical and organizational approaches to push the state of practice toward the state of the art.