학술논문

Towards Autonomous Testing Agents via Conversational Large Language Models
Document Type
Conference
Source
2023 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) ASE Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2023 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on. :1688-1693 Sep, 2023
Subject
Computing and Processing
Software testing
Automation
Taxonomy
Oral communication
Drives
Middleware
Testing
software testing
machine learning
large language model
artificial intelligence, test automation
Language
ISSN
2643-1572
Abstract
Software testing is an important part of the development cycle, yet it requires specialized expertise and substantial developer effort to adequately test software. Recent discoveries of the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) suggest that they can be used as automated testing assistants, and thus provide helpful information and even drive the testing process. To highlight the potential of this technology, we present a taxonomy of LLM-based testing agents based on their level of autonomy, and describe how a greater level of autonomy can benefit developers in practice. An example use of LLMs as a testing assistant is provided to demonstrate how a conversational framework for testing can help developers. This also highlights how the often criticized “hallucination” of LLMs can be beneficial for testing. We identify other tangible benefits that LLM-driven testing agents can bestow, and also discuss potential limitations.