Experience Report on Developing an Ontology-based Approach for Knowledge Management in Software Testing
Érica Ferreira de Souza, Ricardo de Almeida Falbo, Marcos S. Specimille, Alexandre G. N. Coelho, Nandamudi Lankalapalli Vijaykumar, Katia Romero Felizardo, Giovani Volnei Meinerz · 2020
Software testing is a knowledge intensive process. Thus, Knowledge Management (KM) emerges as a means to manage testing knowledge, and, consequently, to improve software quality. However, there are only a few KM solutions supporting software testing. This paper reports experiences from the development of an approach, Ontology-based Testing Knowledge Management (OntoT-KM), to assist in launching KM initiatives in the software testing domain with the support of Knowledge Management Systems (KMSs). OntoT-KM provides a process guiding how to start applying KM in software testing. OntoT-KM is based on the findings of a systematic mapping on KM in software testing and the results of a survey with testing practitioners. Moreover, OntoT-KM considers the conceptualization established by a Reference Ontology on Software Testing (ROoST). As a proof of concept, OntoT-KM was applied to develop a KMS called Testing KM Portal (TKMP), which was evaluated in terms of usefulness, usability and functional correctness. Results show that the developed KMS from OntoT-KM is a potential system for managing knowledge in software testing, so, the approach is able to guide KM initiatives in software testing.