A Survey on Mocking in Software Testing

PhD Qualifying Examination


Title: "A Survey on Mocking in Software Testing"

by

Mr. Hengcheng ZHU


Abstract:

Unit testing is an important technique to assure the quality of software 
components by testing them in isolation, which is challenging for modern 
software due to its rapidly growing complexity. The reason is that, in 
such complicated software, a component usually depends on other components 
to function. Testing such software components is difficult when their 
dependent components are faulty, flaky, or even unavailable. In practice, 
when testing such components, developers substitute their dependencies 
with mock objects, which mimic the behaviors of real objects in controlled 
ways. Mock objects reduce the effort of setting up the test environment, 
increase test efficiency, increase test coverage, and reduce flakiness.

In the past two decades, various studies on mocking have been con- ducted. 
They explored the practices adopted by developers when using mock objects, 
automated the construction of mock objects, and enhanced various testing 
techniques with mocking. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies 
on mocking since 2001. We built a taxonomy of the studies on mocking based 
on the problem they explored and the challenge they addressed. We also 
identified the open challenges in mocking and highlighted future research 
directions.


Date:  			Monday, 27 June 2022

Time:                  	2:00pm - 4:00pm

Zoom Meeting:
https://hkust.zoom.us/j/96994112085?pwd=UW1TaytUYjZFQkEvTDlDbWtuTGFQdz09

Committee Members:	Prof. Shing-Chi Cheung (Supervisor)
 			Dr. Shuai Wang (Chairperson)
 			Dr. Lionel Parreaux
 			Prof. Raymond Wong


**** ALL are Welcome ****