Visualization of Source Code and Acceptance Test Co-evolution

Abstract

This research investigates how the codebase and acceptance tests have changed over time using version control. An essential requirement for this evaluation is analyzing software development and test cases used in real-world projects. The data stored in software repositories is vital for software systems. Access to prior versions of the program and the ability to differentiate between adjacent versions using acceptance tests and source code modifications can provide insight into how the software evolves. A skillful visualization method is required to achieve this level of awareness. This research presents a visualization method for tracking the concurrent evolution of source code and acceptance tests within software development projects. The case study looks at four open-source projects taken from the real world that have acceptance tests hosted on GitHub. The proposed visualization method enables the negative slope on two projects for the source code and acceptance test co-evolution to be quickly observed, and with such an observation, the project team can take necessary actions to change the course of the co-evolution.