Perspectives on automated testing of aspect-oriented programs

Aspect-oriented software development is gaining popularity with the adoption of aspect-oriented languages in writing programs. To reduce the manual effort in assuring the quality of aspect-oriented programs, we have developed a set of techniques and tools for automated testing of aspect-oriented programs. This position paper presents our perspectives on automated testing techniques from three dimensions: testing aspectual behavior or aspectual composition, unit tests or integration tests, and test-input generation or test oracles. We illustrate automated testing techniques primarily through the last dimension in the perspectives. By classifying these automated testing techniques in the perspectives, we provide better understanding of these techniques and identify future directions for automated testing of aspect-oriented programs. This position paper also presents a couple of new techniques that we propose based on the perspectives.