Simulating testing environments with configuration options
Aris, A, 359 - 364 (2004)
Abstract
A program is said to be configurable if it is implemented to accept parameters in order to function differently depending on the values of parameters. Such a parameter is called a configuration option, and an instance of all parameters together determine a configuration for the program. The test results data of a configurable software tends to be large. Consequently, making sense out of this data as a human becomes a challenge. In search of an automated method that would transform such data into concise, meaningful, and human interpretable form we faced the difficulties of obtaining appropriate test results data. A solution to this subproblem was to simulate a testing environment capable of producing appropriate test results data, which turned out to be a problem on its own. A fundamental question is how to represent the elements of the testing environment. In this paper, we provide our solution to the representation issue. In addition, we define and discuss some properties of configuration options. These properties may become critical to consider for the analysis of test results.