AutoBlackTest: Automatic Black-Box Testing of Interactive Applications

Automatic test case generation is a key ingredient of an efficient and cost-effective software verification process. In this paper we focus on testing applications that interact with the users through a GUI, and present AutoBlackTest, a technique to automatically generate test cases at the system level. AutoBlackTest uses reinforcement learning, in particular Q-Learning, to learn how to interact with the application under test and stimulate its functionalities. The empirical results show that AutoBlackTest can execute a relevant portion of the code of the application under test, and can reveal previously unknown problems by working at the system level and interacting only through the GUI.