Software testing: from theory to practice

This paper is about the disparity between what is known and what is being learned in academia and what is being used in industry. The author believes there are many reasons. Some of these represent accidental and some essential problems. Most are part of a general issue of quality in the software products. Most problems that make it more difficult to apply testing techniques are part of a larger problem which make them more cost-effective to produce high quality software. The author presents a list of reasons industry does not use the highly advanced, and in some cases, highly developed software testing techniques that are available. The problems are divided into three broad categories: problems in industry; problems in academic research and education; and problems in the interface between the two.