Start of research project

Start of research project
The cooperation project aims to use model-based methods for the systematic and automated quality assurance of mobile applications.

Bietigheim-Bissingen, 15.05.2018.
We use mobile applications (apps) nowadays for the most diverse tasks of daily life. The use of apps is not limited to the private sector, as many apps are also developed for commercial and industrial use. Commercial and industrial applications can be found for example in logistics (shipment tracking), medicine (patient documentation/therapy support) or in the tourism industry (museum or event guide). Since apps often have to be made available promptly or adapted immediately to new business processes, they do not always have the quality that users expect. Who hasn’t experienced that an app doesn’t behave as expected? Apps are often not fully usable in an unconnected network state because remote data and services cannot be accessed. The appearance and thus the usability of mobile applications can also be limited by the use of older mobile devices. Systematic tests, which can be repeated regularly, are necessary to create high-quality apps. The generation of automated tests allows comprehensive and repeated testing of apps without causing a cost explosion for quality assurance. Similarly, automation of testing does not cause delays in app development. Apps can be completed promptly or adapted to new requirements.

Further challenges arise in the area of mobile applications. Apps can be installed on a wide variety of device types. It is hardly possible to systematically cover the countless device contexts with manually created tests. During the operation of an app, the mobility of the user also leads to different environmental influences. Changing network connections or the charging status of the battery can affect the use of an app, for example. These diverse device and system contexts result in additional test variants to the functional tests, which have to test the app behavior in these contexts. The resulting number of tests can increase rapidly.

The aim of the project is to create a solution that can test the basic functionality of an app (specification-based test) as well as general quality criteria and the effects of environmental influences (specification-less test). This process should allow the systematic creation and execution of test cases as well as a high degree of automation. By using a platform-independent, model-based approach to describe requirements and implementations, test cases can be generated for different test tools and different test infrastructures (physical devices, virtual devices, cloud-based devices, etc.) can be used for test execution. All in all, this helps to facilitate the testing of apps.

The ‚Mobile Testing‘ project emerged from a ZIM-funded cooperation network („Successful large-scale IT projects: Systematic success“) run by GFFT Innovationsförderung GmbH. The aim of the network is to support the network partners in the initiation and implementation of research projects.

„The project enables us to transfer techniques from many years of research work in the field of model-based software development into practice. At the same time, our goal is to develop and test new methods for testing mobile applications. With eXept Software AG, we are very pleased to have gained a strong industrial partner in the field of test automation,“ explains Prof. Gabriele Taentzer, Software Engineering Group, Philipps University Marburg.

„We look forward to working with GFFT and Philipps University on the Mobile Testing research project. The project will show how quality management of mobile applications can be more systematic and automated through model-based testing. The results of the project will be used for our product ‚expecco‘. This gives our customers a modern extension to test apps systematically and efficiently,“ explains Claus Gittinger, system architect at eXept Software AG.

The ‚Mobile Testing‘ project is funded for two years by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy as part of the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM).

Contact for further questions:
GFFT Innovationsförderung GmbH
Dr. Thorsten Arendt
Mail: thorsten.arendt@gfft-ev.de
Tel.: +49 6101 / 95 49 8 98

eXept Software AG
Claudia Gossow
Mail: info@exept.de
Tel.: +49 7142 / 91948-0

Philipps Universität Marburg Department for Mathematics and Computer Science
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Taentzer
Mail: taentzer@mathematik.uni-marburg.de
Tel.: +49 6421 / 2821532