What is software testing? And why is it so hard?

Goal-oriented dynamic test generation

“…In all three of the above activities, test engineers play a central role in driving the testing process. As software systems are growing rapidly in scale and complexity, such a human-centric process is very time consuming, expensive, and unreliable [133]. The automation of these activities is thus required to improve software quality and reliability.…”

“…The limitations of software testing, which apply throughout the entire process, can be usefully categorized as follows [4], [7], [133]:…”

A multi-case study of agile requirements engineering and the use of test cases as requirements

“…Martin and Melnik (2008) hypothesize that as the formality of specifications increases, requirements and tests become indistinguishable. This principle is taken to the extreme by unit tests (Whittaker 2000) where requirements are formalized in executable code. Practitioners report using unit tests as a technical specification that evolves with the implementation (Runeson 2006).…”

Open Problems in Software Test Coverage

“…Also, knowing which test oracles to choose can contribute to easier automation [21]. More studies on the impact of test oracles on test effectiveness are needed as they are currently scarce and in limited domains [23].…”