Metamorphic relations for enhancing system understanding and use

Zhou, Zhi Quan, Sun, Liqun, Chen, Tsong Yueh and Towey, Dave (2018) Metamorphic relations for enhancing system understanding and use. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering . ISSN 0098-5589

[img]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (15MB) | Preview

Abstract

Modern information technology paradigms, such as online services and off-the-shelf products, often involve a wide variety of users with different or even conflicting objectives. Every software output may satisfy some users, but may also fail to satisfy others. Furthermore, users often do not know the internal working mechanisms of the systems. This situation is quite different from bespoke software, where developers and users usually know each other. This paper proposes an approach to help users to better understand the software that they use, and thereby more easily achieve their objectives—even when they do not fully understand how the system is implemented. Our approach borrows the concept of metamorphic relations from the field of metamorphic testing (MT), using it in an innovative way that extends beyond MT. We also propose a "symmetry" metamorphic relation pattern and a "change direction" metamorphic relation input pattern that can be used to derive multiple concrete metamorphic relations. Empirical studies reveal previously unknown failures in some of the most popular applications in the world, and show how our approach can help users to better understand and better use the systems. The empirical results provide strong evidence of the simplicity, applicability, and effectiveness of our methodology.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Keywords: Software testing; Information technology; Electronic mail; Software systems Software maintenance
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham Ningbo China > Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Computer Science
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2018.2876433
Depositing User: QIU, Lulu
Date Deposited: 22 Oct 2018 14:22
Last Modified: 30 Oct 2018 11:13
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/55380

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View Edit View