Developing Software Testing Ontology in UML for a Software Growth Environment of Web-Based Applications

Abstract

This chapter introduces the concept of software growth environments to support sustainable long-term evolution of Web-based application systems. A multiagent prototype system is designed and implemented with emphasis on software testing. In this environment, software tools are agents that cooperate effectively with each other and human testers through communications at a high level of abstraction. New tools can be integrated into the system with maximal flexibility. These are achieved through the design and utilisation of an ontology of software testing that represents the knowledge of software engineering and codifies the knowledge for computer processing as the contents of an agent communication language. The ontology is represented in UML (Unified Modeling Language) at a high level of abstraction so that it can be validated by human experts. It is also codified in XML (Extensible Markup Language) for computer processing to achieve the required flexibility and extendibility.