Variability-Based Models for Testability Analysis of Frameworks

Frameworks are developed to capture the recurring design practices in terms of skeletons of software subsystems/ systems. They are designed ‘abstract’ and ‘incomplete’ and are designed with predefined points of variability, known as hot spots, to be customized later at the time of framework reuse. Frameworks are reusable entities thus demand stricter and rigorous testing in comparison to one-time use application. It would be advisable to guaranty the production of high quality frameworks without incurring heavy costs for their rigorous testing. The overall cost of framework development may be reduced by designing frameworks with high testability. This paper aims at discussing various metric models for testability analysis of frameworks in an attempt to having quantitative data on testability to be used to plan and monitor framework testing activities so that the framework testing effort and hence the overall framework development effort may be brought down. The models considered herein particularly consider that frameworks are inherently abstract and variable in nature.