Towards Fault Localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling

Hannes Thaller; Lukas Linsbauer; Alexander Egyed; Stefan Fischer

doi:10.1109/VST50071.2020.9051635

Towards Fault Localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling

Hannes Thaller, Lukas Linsbauer, Alexander Egyed, Stefan Fischer

Institute of Software Systems Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Software testing helps developers to identify bugs. However, awareness of bugs is only the first step. Finding and correcting the faulty program components is equally hard and essential for high-quality software. Fault localization automatically pinpoints the location of an existing bug in a program. It is a hard problem, and existing methods are not yet precise enough for widespread industrial adoption. We propose fault localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling (PSM). PSM analyzes the structure and behavior of a program and synthesizes a network of Probabilistic Models (PMs). Each PM models a method with its inputs and outputs and is capable of evaluating the likelihood of runtime data. We use this likelihood evaluation to find fault locations and their impact on dependent code elements. Results indicate that PSM is a robust framework for accurate fault localization.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	24-27
Number of pages	4
Journal	IEEE Workshop on Validation, Analysis and Evolution of Software Tests (VST)
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/VST50071.2020.9051635
Publication status	Published - Feb 2020

Fields of science

102 Computer Sciences
102022 Software development

JKU Focus areas

Digital Transformation

Access to Document

10.1109/VST50071.2020.9051635

COMET K1-Zentrum Software Competence Center Hagenberg (SCCH)
Feichtenschlager, P. (Researcher), Heumader, P. (Researcher) & Miesenberger, K. (PI)
01.01.2015 → 31.12.2018
Project: Funded research › FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency

Cite this

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title = "Towards Fault Localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling",

abstract = "Software testing helps developers to identify bugs. However, awareness of bugs is only the first step. Finding and correcting the faulty program components is equally hard and essential for high-quality software. Fault localization automatically pinpoints the location of an existing bug in a program. It is a hard problem, and existing methods are not yet precise enough for widespread industrial adoption. We propose fault localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling (PSM). PSM analyzes the structure and behavior of a program and synthesizes a network of Probabilistic Models (PMs). Each PM models a method with its inputs and outputs and is capable of evaluating the likelihood of runtime data. We use this likelihood evaluation to find fault locations and their impact on dependent code elements. Results indicate that PSM is a robust framework for accurate fault localization.",

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doi = "10.1109/VST50071.2020.9051635",

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journal = "IEEE Workshop on Validation, Analysis and Evolution of Software Tests (VST)",

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AU - Linsbauer, Lukas

AU - Egyed, Alexander

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Y1 - 2020/2

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AB - Software testing helps developers to identify bugs. However, awareness of bugs is only the first step. Finding and correcting the faulty program components is equally hard and essential for high-quality software. Fault localization automatically pinpoints the location of an existing bug in a program. It is a hard problem, and existing methods are not yet precise enough for widespread industrial adoption. We propose fault localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling (PSM). PSM analyzes the structure and behavior of a program and synthesizes a network of Probabilistic Models (PMs). Each PM models a method with its inputs and outputs and is capable of evaluating the likelihood of runtime data. We use this likelihood evaluation to find fault locations and their impact on dependent code elements. Results indicate that PSM is a robust framework for accurate fault localization.

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DO - 10.1109/VST50071.2020.9051635

M3 - Article

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JO - IEEE Workshop on Validation, Analysis and Evolution of Software Tests (VST)

JF - IEEE Workshop on Validation, Analysis and Evolution of Software Tests (VST)

ER -

Towards Fault Localization via Probabilistic Software Modeling

Abstract

Fields of science

JKU Focus areas

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Projects

COMET K1-Zentrum Software Competence Center Hagenberg (SCCH)

Cite this