Test Confessions: A Study of Testing Practices for Plug-in Systems

Test Confessions: A Study of Testing Practices for Plug-in Systems

Greiler, M.
Van Deursen, A.
Storey, M.A.

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Software Technology

2011-12-31

Testing plug-in-based systems is challenging due to complex interactions among many different plug-ins, and variations in version and configuration. The objective of this paper is to increase our understanding of what testers and developers think and do when it comes to testing plug-inbased systems. To that end, we conduct a qualitative (grounded theory) study, in which we interview 25 senior practitioners about how they test plug-in applications based on the Eclipse plug-in architecture. The outcome is an overview of the testing practices currently used, a set of identified barriers limiting test adoption, and an explanation of how limited testing is compensated by self-hosting of projects and by involving the community. These results are supported by a structured survey of more than 150 professionals. The study reveals that unit testing plays a key role, whereas plug-in specific integration problems are identified and resolved by the community. Based on our findings, we propose a series of recommendations and areas for future research. Accepted paper for 34th International Conference on Software Engineering, Zurich, Switserland, 2-9 june 2012

grounded theory
plug-in architectures
open source software development

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:94292c3d-1199-4db9-bbdb-69607d47a77b

Delft University of Technology, Software Engineering Research Group

1872-5392

Technical Report Series TUD-SERG-2011-010

Institutional Repository

report

(c) 2011 The authors. Software Engineering Research Group, Department of Software Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology.