Automated software testing as a service

This paper makes the case for TaaS--automated software testing as a cloud-based service. We present three kinds of TaaS: a "programmer's sidekick" enabling developers to thoroughly and promptly test their code with minimal upfront resource investment; a "home edition" on-demand testing service for consumers to verify the software they are about to install on their PC or mobile device; and a public "certification service," akin to Underwriters Labs, that independently assesses the reliability, safety, and security of software. TaaS automatically tests software, without human involvement from the service user's or provider's side. This is unlike today's "testing as a service" businesses, which employ humans to write tests. Our goal is to take recently proposed techniques for automated testing--even if usable only on to y programs--and make them practical by modifying them to harness the resources of compute clouds. Preliminary work suggests it is technically feasible to do so, and we find that TaaS is also compelling from a social and business point of view.