A contribution to the theory of program testing (Q1060837)

We propose an abstract formalism for program testing which extends a previous paper of Goodenough and Gerhart. We define the notion of a battery of tests for a given testing context. Its properties are studied: reliability, validity, bias and acceptability. A preorder is defined and studied, which yields an equivalence relation among batteries of tests. This equivalence turns out to be of great interest, both theoretical and practical. We study the application of this model to some classical questions: effective (automatic) test generation, test optimization, quality assessment of the testing process, and relationships between program proving and program testing.