LTA – Laboratorio di Test e Analisi
del Software
Ordinari:
Mauro Pezzè
Ricercatori:
Leonardo Mariani
Giovanni Denaro
Pietro Braione
Dottorandi:
Fabrizio Pastore
Mauro Santoro
Research Expertise
Software quality 
Software Self-Healing
Software Testing/Analysis
EU IP’08
Moleskeen
Rejected proposals
PRIN’07
SelfService
Validating Changes and
Upgrades in Embedded SW
PRIN’09 Autonomic
EU STREP Shadows
Self-Healing Approach to
Designing Complex Software
Mutant HW/SW
reconfigurable systems
FIRB’09 ViVaCe
Integration of Visual Modelling Techniques
Regione’09 ASTIL
PRIN Quack
Model Inference with Steering
Quality of Integrated
Embedded Systems
2002
FIRB’09 DAIH
Verification & Validation of
Continuously Evolving Systems
NoE SegraVis
2001
Self-healing service
oriented architectures
Dependable Ambient Intelligence
for Helthcare
PRIN Commuta
2000
NoE (call 5)
Self-adaptation
EU IP’09 Pincette
EU FET’06
DADS
LTA starts here
EU IP (call 5)
Shadows 2
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Automated defect diagnosis
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Goal
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Findings
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Facilitate debugging of SW (high impact on software costs)
Faults can be localized comparing software behaviors against monitored
execution traces
Log files include ready available information about why applications fail
Successfully experimented for real applications: Tomcat, Eclipse, JBoss
LTA investigators
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Mariani, Pastore, Pezzè
PUBLICATIONS
Mariani, Pastore, Pezzè. Dynamic Analysis for Localizing Integration Faults. In prep. IEEE TSE
Babenko, Mariani e Pastore. AVA: Automated Interpretation of Software Anomalies. In prep. IEEE TSE
Mariani, Pastore, Pezzè. A Toolset for Automated Failure Analysis. Research Demo at ICSE 2009
Babenko, Mariani, Pastore. Automated Interpretation of Dynamically Detected Anomalies. ISSTA 2009
Mariani, Pastore. Automated Identification of Failure Causes in System Logs. ISSRE 2008
Mariani, Pezzè. Dynamic Detection of COTS Components Incompatibility. IEEE Software 2007
Cotroneo, Pietrantuono, Mariani, Pastore. Investigation of failure causes in workload-driven reliability testing.SOQUA 2007
Dataflow testing of OO SW
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Goal
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Findings
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Devise test sequences for validating systems of (Java) classes
Dataflow testing (pairing defined/used variables)
account well for state-based behaviors of classes
Contextual criteria (including data on method invocation chains)
enable integration testing in presence of aggregation and encapsulation
LTA investigators
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Denaro, Pezzè
PUBLICATIONS
Denaro, Gorla, Pezzè. DaTeC: Contextual Data Flow Testing of Java Classes. Research Demo at ICSE 2009
Denaro, Gorla, Pezzè. Contextual Integration Testing of Classes. FASE 2008
Buy, Orso, Pezzè. Automated Testing of Classes. ISSTA 2000.
Combined stat/dyn analysis
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Goal
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Findings
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Exploit complementary strengths of static and dynamic program analyses
to enable sound proofs/refutations of safety properties of real software
Symbolic execution is a viable techniques for formal verification of
properties
Combined symbolic/concrete execution may generate precise behavioral
models
Existing proposals of combined static/dynamic analyses are built along
the lines of a set of common reference models
LTA Investigators: Braione, Denaro, Mariani, Pezzè, Santoro
PUBLICATIONS
Braione, Denaro. Combined static/dynamic software analysis: a survey. In prep. ACM Computing surveys
Santoro. Detection of precise behavioral models. In prep. Doctoral Workshop at ESEC/FSE 2009
Braione, Denaro, Krena, Pezzè. Verifying LTL Properties of Bytecode with Symbolic Execution. Bytecode 2008
Coen-Porisini, Denaro, Ghezzi, Pezzè. Using Symbolic Execution for Verifying Safety-Critical Systems. ESEC/FSE 2001
Self-Healing Software
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Goal
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Findings
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Reduce bug-fixing costs by automatic/dynamic healing of software faults
Architectural connectors can encapsulate detection and healing
strategies for integration problems in component based systems
(automatically, on-the-fly, in-field)
Successfully experimented for Corba middleware, Spring, Jboss
LTA Investigators: Mariani, Pezzè
PUBLICATIONS
Chang, Mariani e Pezzè, Exception Handlers for Healing Component Based Application. In prep. IEEE TSE
Chang ,Mariani e Pezze. In-Field Healing of Integration Problems with COTS Components. ICSE 2009
Chang, Mariani e Pezzè. Self-Healing Strategies for Component Integration Faults. ARAMIS 2008
Lorenzoli, Mariani, Pezzè. Towards Self-Protecting Enterprise Applications. ISSRE 2007
Self-Healing SOA
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Goal
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Findings
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Build automatically reconfigurable service-based software from user-specified visual
requirements
Dynamically discovered services can be automatically checked by online testing
and dynamically adapted by means of mediators deployed at runtime
Adaptation requirements generalize to domain catalogs of test/adaptation strategies
User-specified visual specs can be (semi-)automatically transformed to servicebased software
Successfully experimented for real applications: social networks, mobile devices
LTA Investigators: Denaro, Mariani, Pezzè
PUBLICATIONS
Denaro, Pezzè, Tosi. Test-and-adapt: an Approach to Esuring Interoperabile SOA. In prep. for IEEE TSE
Denaro, Pezzè, Tosi. Towards Autonomic Service-Oriented Applications. IJAC 1(1), 2009
Denaro, Pezzè, Tosi. Ensuring Interoperable Service-oriented Systems through Engineered Self-Healing. ESEC/FSE 2009
Lambers, Mariani, Ehrig, Pezzè. A Formal Framework for Developing Adaptable Service-Based Applications. FASE 2008
Denaro, Pezzè, Tosi. Designing Self-Adaptive Service-Oriented Applications. ICAC 2007
Lambers, Ehrig, Mariani, Pezzè. Iterative Model-driven Development of Adaptable Service-Based Applications. ASE 2007
Lohmann, Mariani e Heckel. Testing and Analysis of Web Services. Book chapter 2007
Dynamic models for COTS
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Goal
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Findings
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Automatically derive behavioral models of COTS systems
Behavioral models can be synthesized as E-FSM from monitored
execution traces
The automatically derived behavioral models allow for prioritizing test
cases and thus optimizing regression testing activities
LTA Investigators: Mariani, Pezzè
PUBLICATIONS
Lo, Mariani, Pezzè. Automatic Steering of Behavioral Model Inference. ESEC/FSE 2009
Lorenzoli, Mariani, Pezzè. Automatic Generation of Software Behavioral Models. ICSE 2008
Mariani, Papagiannakis, Pezzè. Compatibility and Regression Testing of COTS-component-based Software. ICSE 2007
Plans
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Mature projects to be finalized within 1 year
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automated defect diagnoses
data flow testing of OO SW
dynamic models for COTS
Major future projects
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Software self-healing
Self-healing SOA
Combined static/dynamic program analysis
National Partnerships
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DISCo
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SAL (Micucci)
Detecting software
plagiarisms
Essere (Arcelli)
Static/dynamic analysis for
reverse engineering
Academy
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Politecnico Milano (Ghezzi)
Politecnico Torino (Prinetto)
Univ. Napoli Federico II
(Mazzeo, Mazzocca)
Univ. Firenze (Fantechi)
Univ. Aquila (Muccini)
Univ. Camerino (Polini)
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Industry
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Nokia Siemens Networks
BBS Software SpA
Selex, gruppo Finmeccanica
IWBank
BTicino
AZCom Technology
ST Microelectronics
International Partnerships
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Academy
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Univ. Lugano (Carzaniga)
Univ. Oregon (Young)
University College London
(Emmerich)
Univ. Potsdam (Margaria)
Univ. Paderborn (Engels)
Imperial College (Wolf)
LIG Grenoble (Estublier)
Univ. Leicester (Heckel)
Univ. Brno (Krena)
Univ. Singapore (Lo)
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Industry
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IBM Haifa (Israel)
Telefonica (Spain)
IAI (Israel)
Artisys (Czech republic)
NetTechnologies (Greece)
Scapa (Scotland)
Students and Post-Doc
FROM
CURRENTLY
Leen Lambers
TU Berlin
Researcher at TU Berlin
Daniela Shilling
U Paderborn
Engineer in Paderborn
Sofia Papagiannakis Ecole Polytechnique
Engineer in Athens
Slavek Krena
U Brno
Prof. at U Brno
Hervè Chang
U Nice-Sophia Antipolis Engineer at Air France
Fabien Romeo
U Pau
Prof. Ecole d‘Ingénieurs en Informatique
David Willmor
U Manchester
Engineer at Morgan Stanley
David Lo
National U Singapore
Assistant Prof. at National U Singapore
Davide Tosi
PhD at LTA
Post-doc at U Insubria
Davide Lorenzoli
PhD at LTA
Post-doc at City U London
Alessandra Gorla
MSc at LTA
PhD Student at U Lugano
Community Services
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Software Engineering
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Software Testing and Analysis
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Candidate chair of ACM SIGSOFT (Pezzè)
Associate editor TOSEM and ASE (Pezzè)
PC member of ICSE, FSE, ASE (Pezzè, Denaro)
Chair of the ICSE Doctoral Symposium (Pezzè)
PC chair ISSTA (Pezzè)
PC member of ISSTA, ICST (Pezzè, Denaro)
Autonomic
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PC chair SEAMS (Pezzè)
PC chair ARAMIS (Mariani)
PC member ICAC, SEAMS (Pezzè, Mariani)