Comparing developer-provided to user-provided tests for fault localization and automated program repair
René Just, Chris Parnin, Ian Drosos, Michael D. Ernst · 2018
To realistically evaluate a software testing or debugging technique, it must be run on defects and tests that are characteristic of those a developer would encounter in practice. For example, to determine the utility of a fault localization or automated program repair technique, it could be run on real defects from a bug tracking system, using real tests that are committed to the version control repository along with the fixes. Although such a methodology uses real tests, it may not use tests that are characteristic of the information a developer or tool would have in practice. The tests that a developer commits after fixing a defect may encode more information than was available to the developer when initially diagnosing the defect.