The 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automation of Software Test (AST 2024)

Software pervasiveness in both industry and digital society, as well as the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are continuously leading to emerging needs from both software producers and consumers. Infrastructures, software components, and applications aim to hide their increasing complexity in order to appear more human-centric. However, the potential risk from design errors, poor integrations, and time-consuming engineering phases can result in unreliable solutions that can barely meet their intended objectives. In this context, Software Engineering processes keep demanding for the investigation of novel and further refined approaches to Software Quality Assurance (SQA). Software testing automation is a discipline that has produced noteworthy research in the last decade. The search for solutions to automatically test any concept of software is critical, and it encompasses several areas: from the generation of the test cases, test oracles, test stubs/mocks; through the definition of selection and prioritization criteria; up to the engineering of infrastructures governing the execution of testing sessions locally or remotely in the cloud.

AST continues with a long record of international scientific forums on methods and solutions to automate software testing. This year AST is the 5th edition of a conference that was formerly organized as workshops since 2006. The conference promotes high quality research contributions on methods for software test automation, and original case studies reporting practices in this field. We invite contributions that focus on: i) lessons learned about experiments of automatic testing in practice; ii) experiences of the adoption of testing tools, methods and techniques; iii) best practices to follow in testing and their measurable consequences; and iv) theoretical approaches that are applicable to the industry in the context of AST.

Authors of the best papers presented at AST 2024 will be invited to submit an extension of their work for possible inclusion in a special issue in Software Testing, Verification, and Reliability (STVR) journal

Call for papers.

Call for Papers

Software pervasiveness in both industry and digital society, as well as the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are continuously leading to emerging needs from both software producers and consumers. Infrastructures, software components, and applications aim to hide their increasing complexity in order to appear more human-centric. However, the potential risk from design errors, poor integrations, and time-consuming engineering phases can result in unreliable solutions that can barely meet their intended objectives. In this context, Software Engineering processes and methods keep demanding for the investigation of novel and further refined approaches to Software Quality Assurance (SQA).

Software testing automation is a discipline that has produced noteworthy research in the last decades. The search for solutions to automatically test any concept of software is critical, and it encompasses several areas: from the generation of the test cases, test oracles, test stubs/mocks; through the definition of selection and prioritization criteria; up to the engineering of infrastructures governing the execution of testing sessions locally or remotely in the cloud.

Automation of Software Test (AST) conference continues with a long record of international scientific forums on methods and solutions to automate software testing. This year AST 2024 is the 5th edition of a conference that was formerly organized as workshops since 2006. The conference promotes high quality research contributions on methods for software test automation, and original case studies reporting practices in this field. We invite contributions that focus on: i) lessons learned about experiments of automatic testing in practice; ii) experiences of the adoption of testing tools, methods and techniques; iii) best practices to follow in testing and their measurable consequences; and iv) theoretical approaches that are applicable to the industry in the context of AST.

With the emergence of generative AI, its application to test automation is eminent. The special theme of this year is “Test automation for and with Generative AI”, with special sessions on applying test automation technologies to the testing of Generative AI applications, and using generative AI to facilitate test automation.

Topics of Interest

Submissions on the AST 2024 theme are especially encouraged, but papers on other topics relevant to the automation of software tests are also welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• AI for Automated Software Testing
• Testing for AI robustness, safety, reliability and security
• Testing of AI-based Systems
• Effective testing through explainable AI
• Test automation of large complex system
• Test Automation in Software Process and Evolution, DevOps, Agile, CI/CD flows
• Metrics for testing - test efficiency, test coverage
• Tools for model-based V&V
• Test-driven development
• Standardization of test tools
• Test coverage metrics and criteria
• Product line testing
• Formal methods and theories for testing and test automation
• Test case generation based on formal, semi-formal and AI models
• Testing with software usage models
• Testing of reactive and object-oriented systems
• Software simulation by models, forecasts of behavior and properties
• Application of model checking in testing
• Tools for security specification, models, protocols, testing and evaluation
• Theoretical foundations of test automation
• Models as test oracles; test validation with models
• Testing anomaly detectors
• Testing cyber physical systems
• Automated usability and user experience testing
• Automated software testing for AI applications

We are interested in the following aspects related to AST:

1. Problem identification. Analysis and specification of requirements for AST, and elicitation of problems that hamper wider adoption of AST
2. Methodology. Novel methods and approaches for AST in the context of up-to-date software development methodologies
3. Technology. Automation of various test techniques and methods for test-related activities, as well as for testing various types of software
4. Tools and Environments. Issues and solutions in the development, operation, maintenance and evolution of tools and environments for AST, and their integration with other types of tools and runtime support platforms
5. Empirical studies, Experience reports, and Industrial Contributions. Real experiences in using automated testing techniques, methods and tools in industry
6. Visions of the future. Foresight and thought-provoking ideas for AST that can inspire new powerful research trends.

Authors of the best papers presented at AST 2024 will be invited to submit an extension of their work for possible inclusion in a special issue in Software Testing, Verification, and Reliability (STVR) journal

Four types of submissions are invited for both research and industry:

1. Regular Papers (up to 10 pages plus 2 additional pages of references)

• Research Paper
• Industrial Case Study

2. Short Papers (up to 4 pages plus 1 additional page of references)

• Research Paper
• Industrial Case Study
• Doctoral Student Research

3. Industrial Abstracts (up to 2 pages for all materials)

4. Lightning-talk/Poster Abstracts (up to 2 pages for all materials)

Instructions: Regular papers include both Research papers that present research in the area of software test automation, and Industrial Case Studies that report on practical applications of test automation. Regular papers must not exceed 10 pages for all materials (including the main text, appendices, figures, tables) plus 2 additional pages of references.

Short papers also include both Research papers and Industrial Case Studies. Short papers must not exceed 4 pages plus 1 additional page of references. As short papers, doctoral students working on software testing are encouraged to submit their work. AST will have an independent session to bring doctoral students working on software testing, with experts assigned to each paper together, to discuss their research in a constructive and international atmosphere, and to prepare for the defense exam. The first author in a submission must be the doctoral student and the second author the advisor. Authors of selected submissions will be invited to make a brief presentation followed by a constructive discussion in a session dedicated to doctoral students.

Industrial abstract talks are specifically conceived to promote industrial participation: We require the first author of such papers to come from industry. Authors of accepted papers get invited to give a talk with the same time length and within the same sessions as regular papers. Industrial abstracts must not exceed 2 pages for all materials.

The lightning-talk abstracts are for new ideas and proposed innovative research topics and directions, like a submission for a typical poster. No finished result is required, but the ideas should be novel and feasible in the current state of art. We expect all accepted papers to be presented in both slide presentation sessions and poster discussions.

The submission website is: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ast2024

All submissions must adhere to the following requirements:

• The page limit is strict (10 pages plus 2 additional pages of references for full papers; 4 pages plus 1 additional page of references for short papers; 2 pages for all materials in case of industrial abstracts and lightning-talk abstracts). It will not be possible to purchase additional pages at any point in the process (including after acceptance).
• Submissions must strictly conform to the ACM formatting instructions. All submissions must be in PDF.
• LaTeX users can use the following code at the start of the document:

\documentclass[sigconf]{acmart}

\acmConference[AST 2024]{5th International Conference on Automation of Software Test}{April 2024}{Lisbon, Portugal}

• Submissions must be unpublished original work and should not be under review or submitted elsewhere while being under consideration. AST 2024 will follow the single-blind review process. In addition, by submitting to AST, authors acknowledge that they are aware of and agree to be bound by the ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism and the IEEE Plagiarism FAQ. The authors also acknowledge that they conform to the authorship policy of the ACM and the authorship policy of the IEEE.

The accepted regular and short papers, case studies, and industrial abstracts and lightning-talk abstracts will be published in the ICSE 2024 Co-located Event Proceedings and included in the IEEE and ACM Digital Libraries. Authors of accepted papers are required to register and present their accepted paper at the conference in order for the paper to be included in the proceedings and the Digital Libraries.

The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM or IEEE Digital Libraries.

This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of ICSE 2024. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

• 2023 - Melbourne, Australia
• 2022 - Pittsburgh, USA
• 2021 - Virtual (originally in Madrid, Spain)
• 2020 - Seoul - South Korea
• 2019 - Montreal - Canada
• 2018 - Gothenburg - Sweden
• 2017 - Buenos Aires - Argentina
• 2016 - Austin - Texas
• 2015 - Firenze - Italy
• 2014 - Hyderabad - India
• 2013 - San Jose California - USA
• 2012 - Zurich - Switzerland
• 2011 - Waikiki - Hawaii
• 2010 - Cape Town - South Africa
• 2009 - Vancouver - Canada
• 2008 - Leipzig - Germany
• 2007 - Minneapolis - USA
• 2006 - Shanghai - China