Comparing Test Coverage Visually
Our new research paper, “Visual Differential Coverage Analysis for Test Group Comparison”, will be presented at the International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2026).
Software test coverage is often summarized using aggregate metrics. However, these metrics provide only limited insight into how different groups of tests compare. The approach presented in the paper visually reveals overlapping and complementary coverage as well as parts of the program executed exclusively by individual test groups.
This allows developers to compare test groups in detail based on their coverage behavior. The approach is particularly useful for evaluating automatically generated tests and understanding their added value over existing tests.
The paper was authored by Francisca Ibarra-Morales, Juan Pablo Sandoval Alcocer, and Alison Fernandez Blanco from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, together with Fabian Beck from the University of Bamberg. It was accepted to the Research Papers Track of ICSME 2026. The conference will take place in Benevento, Italy, from September 14 to 18, 2026.