1. CS527: (Advanced) Topics in Software Engineering (Software Testing and Analysis)
Darko Marinov
August 25, 2011

2. Course Overview
Graduate seminar on program analysis (for bug finding), emphasis: systematic testing
Papers: read/write/present/discuss
Focus on a (research) project: proposal, progress report, final paper, presentation(?)
One or two problem sets
Teaching staff
Instructor: Darko (NetID: marinov)
TA: Shin Hwei (not just Shin, NetID: stan6)
General info:

3. Course Communication Mailing list: cs527-fa11 AT cs.illinois.edu
Did you get welcome ?
There will be soon HW0 announcement
Wiki
Most of you were able to access and sign on the “People” page
Hopefully all of you can sign up on “People” now

4. Course Organization Questions
Textbook?
No textbook required
For some background on testing, you can read “Introduction to Software Testing” by Paul Ammann and Jeff Offutt
Deliverables?
No exams: no final, no midterm
Focus on project (which is NOT easy)
Writing: proposal, two reports, hopefully bug reports
Presentation: show related papers and your work

5. Evaluation Grading Distribution Project is the most important
Presentation [20%]
Participation (reports and discussion) [20%]
Homework assignment(s) [20%]
Distribution
Grades will be A- centered
No guarantee for A (or even a passing grade)!
Project is the most important
Preferably in groups (2-3 students)

6. General Project Topics
Test thoroughly a piece of software
Apply some technique(s)/tool(s) that we read about on some piece of software
Improve some technique/tool that we discuss in class
Evaluate some techniques/tools on a number of case studies
Develop a new technique/tool …
Some specific proposals will be on Wiki

7. How to Choose a Project? Talk Read Program Dream :)
Discuss with other people
Group projects: talk with students
TA and/or me
Read
Read papers and see what the limitations are
Reuse problem or solution
Program
Problems from you own development experience
Dream :)

8. Today’s Lecture/Meeting
Guideline for reading papers
Paper on writing papers

9. Guideline for Reading Papers
How to Read an Engineering Research Paper by William G. Griswold
Did you get to read the guideline?
How long is the report form?
Our form for reports will be shorter
Later on, papers should be read (and reports written) in advance, before the meeting, so that we can have a good discussion
Any questions about the guideline?

10. (Meta-)Paper on Writing Papers
Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers by Mary Shaw (ICSE 2003)
Could we analyze this paper itself using the guideline for reading papers?

11. Writing Good SE Papers Motivation Approach Results
Guidelines for writing papers for ICSE
Approach
Analysis of papers submitted to ICSE 2002
Distribution across three dimensions
Question
Result
Validation
Results
Writing matters, know your conferences!

12. Types of Question Method or means of development
Method for analysis or evaluation
Design, evaluation, or analysis of a particular instance
Generalization or characterization
Feasibility study or exploration

13. Types of Result Procedure or technique
Qualitative or descriptive model
Empirical model
Analytic model
Tool or notation
Specific solution, prototype, answer, or judgment
Report

14. Types of Validation Analysis Evaluation Experience Example Persuasion
Blatant assertion

15. Some Questions for Discussion
Why do analysis papers have an edge?
What about other (software engineering) conferences?
Does the mentality of PC differ from one conference to another?
Development vs. evaluation in software engineering?

16. Other Papers/Projects?
Some papers that you read or will read
Do they follow these guidelines?
Your reports on papers should also consider question/result/validation
Your own project
Question?
Result?
Validation?

17. Next Lecture Tuesday, August 30
HW0: issues in your software development
as an attachment to ME (marinov)
Assignment 1
Read a paper (listed on Wiki)
Iterative Context Bounding for Systematic Testing of Multithreaded Programs Madan Musuvathi and Shaz Qadeer (PLDI 2007)
May change to IMUnit
No paper report due yet!
Assignment 0: Modify “People” on Wiki