Software Testing: Automated Test Data Generation

Is it possible to generate test data automatically? Generating test data requires proper understanding of the SRS document, SDD document and source code of the software. We have discussed a good number of techniques in the previous chapters for writing test cases manually. How can we automate the process of writing test cases? What is the effectiveness of such automatically generated test suite? Is it really beneficial in practice? We may ask such questions wherever and whenever we discuss about the relevance of automated software test data generation. As we all know, testing software is a very expensive activity and adds nothing to the software in terms of functionality. If we are able to automate test data generation, the cost of testing will be reduced significantly. Automated test data generation is an activity that generates test data automatically for the software under test. The quality and effectiveness of testing is heavily dependent on the generated test data. Hoffman Daniel and others [DANI99] have rightly reported their views as: “The assurance of software reliability partially depends on testing. However, it is interesting to note that testing itself also needs to be reliable. Automating the testing process is a sound engineering approach, which can make the testing efficient, cost effective and reliable.” However, test data generation is not an easy and straightforward process. Many methods are available with their proclaimed advantages and limitations, but acceptability of any one of them is quite limited universally.