TestDCat: Catalog of Test Debt subtypes and management activities

Abstract

When deadlines and resources of software projects become scarce, testing is usually in the first row to have its activities aborted or reduced. If defects cannot be found, product quality can be affected. In a software development process, aborted or reduced activities that can bring short-term benefits, but can be harmful to the project in the long run, are considered Technical Debt (TD). When TDs impact testing activities, they are called Test Debt. There are several studies dealing with Test Debt, however, current solutions often deal with specific types of tests (e.g., exploratory and automated tests) and do not address the whole software testing process. Aiming to fill these gaps, this work proposes a Test Debt Catalog with subtypes of Test Debts and technical debt management activities. This catalog is built based on the results of an empirical study, a literature review and semi-structured interviews conducted with practitioners who perform testing activities on five projects from industry. For the TestDCat evaluation, a case study is conducted in real projects in order to identify if the catalog is user-friendly and if its use helps the test debt management during the execution of test activities in a software development project. The evaluation results obtained from the case study presented evidence that the information organized in the catalog can support the management of Test Debts and has good usability.