2020/07/17 by Eduard Paul Enoiu, Enoiu, Eduard, Gerald Tukseferi +3
Computer Science · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Software Engineering (cs.SE) #Software Engineering Research #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices #Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.08927
openalex publication_date 2020/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Software testing is a complex, intellectual activity based (at least) on\nanalysis, reasoning, decision making, abstraction and collaboration performed\nin a highly demanding environment. Naturally, it uses and allocates multiple\ncognitive resources in software testers. However, while a cognitive psychology\nperspective is increasingly used in the general software engineering\nliterature, it has yet to find its place in software testing. To the best of\nour knowledge, no theory of software testers' cognitive processes exists. Here,\nwe take the first step towards such a theory by presenting a cognitive model of\nsoftware testing based on how problem solving is conceptualized in cognitive\npsychology. Our approach is to instantiate a general problem solving process\nfor the specific problem of creating test cases. We then propose an experiment\nfor testing our cognitive test design model. The experiment makes use of verbal\nprotocol analysis to understand the mechanisms by which human testers choose,\ndesign, implement and evaluate test cases. An initial evaluation was then\nperformed with five software engineering master students as subjects. The\nresults support a problem solving-based model of test design for capturing\ntesters' cognitive processes.\n