Abstract

Too much time is spent on software testing. Most of us involved with software development efforts will agree; we all have experienced long drawn out testing efforts and have wondered about the cause, trying to solve the problem. Software programs have become even more complex and testing times only seem to have increased, i.e., debugging, testing, and verification activities can easily range from 50% to 75% of the total development cost. We think automated software testing (AST) provides the solution to the problem. Hardware automated testing and the associated standards are prevalent in the commercial sector and have been employed successfully in the commercial arena for many years. We need to get software testing up to par with hardware testing. Implementing efficient and effective AST frameworks is a main step into that direction.