SCAM 2025
Sun 7 - Fri 12 September 2025 Auckland, New Zealand
co-located with ICSME 2025
Mon 8 Sep 2025 14:37 - 15:00 at OGGB5 260-051 - LLMs Chair(s): Jens Dietrich

Background: Software systems powered by large language models are becoming a routine part of everyday technologies, supporting applications across a wide range of domains. In software engineering, many studies have focused on how LLMs support tasks such as code generation, debugging, and documentation. However, there has been limited focus on how full systems that integrate LLMs are tested during development. Aims: This study explores how LLM-powered systems are tested in the context of real-world application development. Method: We conducted an exploratory case study using 99 individual reports written by students who built and deployed LLM-powered applications as part of a university course. Each report was independently analyzed using thematic analysis, supported by a structured coding process. Results: Testing strategies combined manual and automated methods to evaluate both system logic and model behavior. Common practices included exploratory testing, unit testing, and prompt iteration. Reported challenges included integration failures, unpredictable outputs, prompt sensitivity, hallucinations, and uncertainty about correctness. Conclusions: Testing LLM-powered systems required adaptations to traditional verification methods, blending source-level reasoning with behavior-aware evaluations. These findings provide evidence on the practical context of testing generative components in software systems.

Mon 8 Sep

Displayed time zone: Auckland, Wellington change

13:30 - 15:00
LLMsResearch Track at OGGB5 260-051
Chair(s): Jens Dietrich Victoria University of Wellington
13:30
22m
Research paper
Exploring the Potential of Large Language Models in Fine-Grained Review Comment Classification
Research Track
Linh Nguyen The University of Melbourne, Chunhua Liu The University of Melbourne, Hong Yi Lin The University of Melbourne, Patanamon Thongtanunam University of Melbourne
Pre-print
13:52
22m
Research paper
Language-Agnostic Generation of Header Comments using Large Language Models
Research Track
Nathanael Yao Queen's University, Juergen Dingel Queen's University, Ali Tizghadam TELUS, Ibrahim Amer Queen's University
14:15
22m
Research paper
Smelling Secrets: Leveraging Machine Learning and Language Models for Sensitive Parameter Detection in Ansible Security Analysis
Research Track
Ruben Opdebeeck Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Valeria Pontillo Gran Sasso Science Institute, Camilo Velázquez-Rodríguez Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Wolfgang De Meuter Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Coen De Roover Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pre-print File Attached
14:37
22m
Research paper
Testing the Untestable? An Empirical Study on the Testing Process of LLM-Powered Software Systems
Research Track
Cleyton V. C. de Magalhaes CESAR School, Italo Santos University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Brody Stuart-Verner University of Calgary, Ronnie de Souza Santos University of Calgary
Pre-print