ICST 2024
Mon 27 - Fri 31 May 2024 Canada

7th IEEE Workshop on NEXt level of Test Automation

NEXTA

Co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST 2024)

Theme and Goals

NEXTA’24 is the seventh edition of the IEEE Workshop on Test Automation - highly relevant for both research and industry. Thus, NEXTA aims to attract both academic researchers and industry practitioners. Test automation has been an acknowledged software engineering best practice for years. However, the topic involves more than the repeated execution of test cases that often comes first to mind. Simply running test cases using a unit testing framework is no longer enough for test automation to keep up with the ever-shorter release cycles driven by continuous deployment and technological innovations such as microservices and DevOps pipelines. Now test automation needs to rise to the next level by going beyond mere test execution. The NEXTA workshop will explore how to advance test automation to further contribute to software quality in the context of tomorrow’s rapid release cycles. Takeaways for industry practitioners and academic researchers will encompass test case generation, automated test result analysis, test suite assessment and maintenance, and infrastructure for the future of test automation.

Full Call for Papers

Keynotes

Title
Risk-Driven Testing and Certification in Simulated Environments
NEXTA
Plenary
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08:00 - 09:00
Breakfast & RegistrationSocial
08:00
60m
Other
Breakfast & Registration
Social

09:00 - 10:30
Session 1NEXTA at Room 3
09:15
15m
Day opening
Welcome to NEXTA2024
NEXTA
Sahar Tahvili Ericsson AB
09:30
60m
Keynote
Risk-Driven Testing and Certification in Simulated Environments
NEXTA
Michael Felderer German Aerospace Center (DLR) & University of Cologne
11:00 - 12:30
Session 2NEXTA at Room 3
11:00
30m
Research paper
Automated Hybrid Fuzzing of Web APIs
NEXTA
Andrea Bogle The Aerospace Corporation, Tan Tran The Aerospace Corporation, Rafael Ceja The Aerospace Corporation, Joshua Sasaki The Aerospace Corporation, Riyadh Mahmood The Aerospace Corporation
11:30
30m
Short-paper
Improving security analysis rule set by relationship identification
NEXTA
Charles Lohest UCLouvain, Axel Legay Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
12:00
30m
Short-paper
TCPGraphix: A Visualization Tool for ML-Powered Test Case Prioritization Data Analysis
NEXTA
Yara Q Mahmoud Ontario Tech University, Akramul Azim Ontario Tech University, Md Asif Khan Ontario Tech University
14:00 - 15:30
Session 3NEXTA at Room 3
14:00
30m
Short-paper
Elevating Software Quality in Agile Environments: The Role of Testing Professionals in Unit Testing
NEXTA
Lucas Neves Cox Automotive Inc., Oscar Campos Cox Automotive Inc., Robson T. de Souza Santos , Cleyton Vanut Cordeiro de Magalhães , Italo Santos Northern Arizona University, Ronnie de Souza Santos University of Calgary
14:30
30m
Research paper
Selecting "good" regression tests based on a classification of side-effects
NEXTA
Robert Balink TU Berlin, Marc-Florian Wendland Fraunhofer Fokus, Yuriy Yevstihnyeyev Vaadin
15:00
30m
Research paper
ODACE: An Appium-based Testing Automation Platform for Android Mobile Devices Certification
NEXTA
Sundos Mojahed École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), Rejean Drouin , Lokman Sboui École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS)
16:00 - 17:30
ClosingNEXTA at Room 3
16:00
30m
Awards
Closing and Best Paper Award
NEXTA
Sahar Tahvili Ericsson AB

Call for Papers

7th IEEE Workshop on NEXt level of Test Automation

NEXTA

Co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST 2024).

Workshop date: Monday, May 27, 2024

Location: Toronto, Canada

Theme and Goals

NEXTA’24 is the seventh edition of the IEEE Workshop on Test Automation - highly relevant for both research and industry. Thus, NEXTA aims to attract both academic researchers and industry practitioners. Test automation has been an acknowledged software engineering best practice for years. However, the topic involves more than the repeated execution of test cases that often comes first to mind. Simply running test cases using a unit testing framework is no longer enough for test automation to keep up with the ever-shorter release cycles driven by continuous deployment and technological innovations such as microservices and DevOps pipelines. Now test automation needs to rise to the next level by going beyond mere test execution. The NEXTA workshop will explore how to advance test automation to further contribute to software quality in the context of tomorrow’s rapid release cycles. Takeaways for industry practitioners and academic researchers will encompass test case generation, automated test result analysis, test suite assessment and maintenance, and infrastructure for the future of test automation.

Topics of Interest

NEXTA solicits contributions targeting all aspects of test automation, from initial test design to automated verdict analysis. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Test execution automation
  • Test case generation
  • Automatic test design generation
  • Analytics, learning, and big data in relation to test automation
  • Automatic aspects management in test, progress, reporting, planning, etc.
  • Visualization of test
  • Evolution of test automation
  • Test suite architecture and infrastructure
  • Test environment, simulation, and other contextual issues for automated testing
  • Test tools, frameworks, and general support for test automation
  • Testing in an agile and continuous integration context, and testing within DevOps
  • Orchestration of test
  • Metrics, benchmarks, and estimation on any type of test automation
  • Any type of test technologies relying on automation of test
  • Process improvements and assessments related to test automation
  • Test automation maturity and experience reports on test automation
  • Automatic retrieval of test data and test preparation aspect
  • Maintainability, monitoring, and refactoring of automated test suites
  • Training and education on automated testing
  • Automated test for product lines and high-variability systems
  • Test automation patterns
  • Automated test oracle

NEXTA solicits the following types of original papers:

  • Technical Papers (max. 8 pages in IEEE format). Full papers presenting research results or industrial practices related to the next generation of test automation.
  • Position and Experience Papers (max. 4 pages in IEEE format). Short papers introducing challenges, visions, positions, or preliminary results within the scope of the workshop.
  • Experience reports and papers on open challenges in the industry are especially welcome.
  • Tool Papers (max. 4 pages in IEEE format). Tool papers introduce tools that implement an approach to support the transition to the next generation of test automation. A tool paper submission must include either 1) a URL to a screencast of the tool in action, or 2) a runnable version of the tool for evaluation by the program committee.

Authors should submit a PDF version of their paper through the NEXTA 2023 paper submission site: All accepted papers will be part of the ICST joint workshop proceedings published in the IEEE Digital Library.

Submission Format

All papers must conform to the two-column IEEE conference publication format. It must conform to the IEEE Conference Proceedings Formatting Guidelines (please use the letter format template and conference option). The submission must also comply with the ACM plagiarism policy and procedures. In particular, it must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under review elsewhere while under review for NEXTA. The submission must also comply with the IEEE Policy on Authorship.

For more info, please contact: Leo Hatvani, Organization Co-chair, leo.hatvani@mdu.se

Questions? Use the NEXTA contact form.