Adaptive random testing

Computing is everywhere, and software is too, but what about the quality of this software? As software becomes increasingly pervasive in our society, what can we do to ensure its quality? One Software Quality Assurance mechanism, Software Testing, is often omitted from the development and implementation of computer systems, sometimes because of its perceived inconvenience and difficulty. A relatively simple way of testing software is to apply test cases (combinations of input representing a single use of the software) randomly, a method known as Random Testing. Among the advantages of Random Testing are its ease of use, the minimal overheads in test case generation, and the statistical support available. Some research has indicated that more widespread distributions of test cases throughout the input domain may be more effective at finding problems in the software. Adaptive Random Testing methods are Software Testing methods which are based on Random Testing, but which use additional mechanisms to ensure more even and widespread distributions of test cases over an input domain. This chapter gives an introduction to some of the major Adaptive Random Testing implementations.