Estimating the coverage of the framework application reusable cluster-based test cases

Object-oriented frameworks support both software code and design reusability. In addition, it is found that providing class-based tests with the framework reduces considerably the class-based testing time and effort of the applications developed using the frameworks. Similarly, reusable cluster-based test cases can be generated using the framework hooks, and they, too, can be provided with the framework to reduce the cluster testing time and effort of the framework applications.In this paper, we introduce a methodology to estimate the possible coverage of the cluster-based reusable test cases for framework applications prior to suggesting and applying a specific technique to produce the test cases. An experimental case study is conducted to demonstrate the practical issues in applying the introduced methodology and to give insights on the possible coverage of the framework reusable cluster-based test cases. The results of applying the methodology on five framework applications show that, on average, the reusable cluster-based test cases cover at least one-third of the cluster testing areas of the interface classes created during the framework application engineering stage.