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Last updated on Thursday, November 16, 2023
@article{VanRompaeyTSE2007,
author = {Bart {Van Rompaey} and Bart {Du Bois} and
Serge Demeyer and Matthias Rieger},
journal = {Transactions on Software Engineering},
note = {SCI impact factor 1.967, ranked 7 / 79},
number = {12},
pages = {800-817},
publisher = {{IEEE} Press},
title = {On the Detection of Test Smells: A Metrics-based
Approach for General Fixture and Eager Test},
volume = {33},
year = {2007},
abstract = {As a fine-grained defect detection technique,
unit-testing introduces a strong dependency on the
structure of the code. Accordingly, test co-evolution
forms an additional burden to the software developer,
which can be tempered by writing tests in a manner
that makes them easier to change. Fortunately, we are
able to concretely express what a good test is by
exploiting the specific principles underlying unit
testing. Analogous to the concept of code smells,
violations of these principles are termed test
smells. In this paper, we clarify the structural
deficiencies encapsulated in test smells by
formalizing core test concepts and their
characteristics. To support the detection of two such
test smells, General Fixture and Eager Test, we
propose a set of metrics defined in terms of unit
test concepts. We compare their detection
effectiveness using manual inspection and through a
comparison with human reviewing. While the latter is
the traditional means for test quality assurance, our
results indicate it not to be a reliable means for
test smell detection. This work thus stresses the
need for a more reliable detection mechanism, and
provides an initial contribution through the
validation of test smell metrics.},
annote = {internationaljournal},
top = {7th in SCI citation index},
doi = {10.1109/TSE.2007.70745},
}