Mining software testing knowledge from stack overflow
D.T. Gupta (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Baris Ardıç – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
Andy Zaidman – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
KG Langendoen – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Embedded Systems)
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Abstract
This paper aims to unveil and gather testing-related information from Stack Overflow, highlighting it as a valuable resource for practitioners seeking answers and guidance.
The study aims to accumulate knowledge from real-life experiences shared on Stack Overflow and bridge the knowledge gap between industry practices and teaching practices.
The paper explores different types of software testing, popular frameworks, temporal trends of testing-related technologies, controversial opinions, and recommended practices/advice/suggestions from Stack Overflow posts. The methodology involves determining search terms through literature, querying the Stack Exchange API, conducting frequency analysis of words from posts, and manually inspecting threads. Our results show that the most popular frameworks discussed are Selenium, Spring, JMeter, and React. Automated testing and JavaScript frameworks have shown an upward trajectory over the years. The recommendations made by practitioners were categorized based on the broad scope of topics covered. We draw comparisons and parallels with related previous research and discuss the technical limitations faced during the study.
Overall, this paper uncovers valuable insights from Stack Overflow and provides practitioners with the current view on industry practices.