Good Bug Hunting: Inspiring and Motivating Software Testing Novices

Good Bug Hunting: Inspiring and Motivating Software Testing Novices

연구 분야: Verification

학회: ITiCSE '21: Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1

Although software testing is crucial in safeguarding our rapidly digitizing society against accidental and malefic threats, students often perceive it as an unattractive activity when compared to design or coding. A more abundant exposure to bugs and their impact can improve the situation. To test this radically new hypothesis, we developed VU-BugZoo, an interactive software testing learning platform. Built upon a repository of fault-seeded executables, the platform engages students and teachers in a dynamic bug-hunting experience. What counts the most in this game is the quality of the test strategy and fault diagnosis, rather than just the quantity of devised test cases. In this paper, we describe the VU-BugZoo web-application, developed using a stack of Vue.js and Python Flask, running in Docker containers. Next, we report on its first deployment in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, for a remote assessment of 50 graduate CS students enrolled in an introductory software testing course. Students' evaluations show that for novices, a 100%-bug-guarantee, end-to-end testing challenge (1) makes learning more effective, (2) offers an adequate assessment instrument and (3) adds more excitement to an otherwise uninspiring chore. More research is needed to investigate the potential of our bug-centric approach to contribute to the hard mission of boosting students' interest in a testing career. We are currently extending the corpus of bugs with more fascinating and representative examples, and investigating code animation, automated grading and formative feedback generation. We intend to make the platform available for other software testing courses in academia and industry.