Is there some formal way(s) of quantifying potential flaws, or risk, and ensuring there’s sufficient spread of tests to cover them? Perhaps using some kind of complexity measure? Or a risk assessment of some kind?

Experience tells me I need to be extra careful around certain things - user input, code generation, anything with a publicly exposed surface, third-party libraries/services, financial data, personal information (especially of minors), batch data manipulation/migration, and so on.

But is there any accepted means of formally measuring a system and ensuring that some level of test quality exists?

  • cgtjsiwy@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Different applications require different tests, so no measure is going to please everyone. If you’re making embedded devices for an airplane, the buyer might ask you to provide a formal proof that the program works. In contrast, web apps tend to simply use end users as testers, since it’s cheaper.