About Instruction Sequence Testing
This work addresses foundational issues in software testing theory, but it is incremental as it builds on existing themes without introducing new empirical results.
The paper tackles the lack of a uniform concept in software testing by proposing instruction sequences as a theoretical model, aiming to develop a theory of instruction sequence testing to serve as a foundation for software testing theories.
Software testing is presented as a so-called theme within which different authors and groups have defined different subjects each of these subjects having a different focus on testing. A uniform concept of software testing is non-existent and the space of possible coherent perspectives on software testing, each fitting within the theme, is viewed as being spanned by five dimensions, each dimension representing two opposite views with a variety of intermediate views in between. Instruction sequences are used as a simple theoretical conceptualization of computer programs. A theory of instruction sequence testing may serve as a model for a theory of software testing. Instruction sequences testing is considered a new topic for which definitions may be freely contemplated without being restricted by existing views on software testing. The problem of developing a theory of instruction sequence testing is posed. A survey is given of motivations and scenarios for developing a theory of instruction sequence testing.