Science Award 2011 for Dr. Michael Felderer

A computer scientist at the University of Innsbruck saves time and money by using effective system tests in the process of software development. The test method: "Telling TestStories" is the main focus of his dissertation for which he was awarded the Science Award 2011 by the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce.

Business meets Science: Die Award Winner of the University of Innsbruck: (front, f.l.) Chanber of Commerce Director Horst Wallner, Chamber of Commerce President Jürgen Bodenseer, Anna Lena Lich, Michael Felderer, LFU-Rector Tilmann Märk
Photo: Die Fotografen

On 15. December 2011 Chamber of Commerce President Jürgen Bodenseer awarded the Science Award 2011 of the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce for outstanding dissertations and master theses. Papers which received the grade "excellent" and contain a high level of innovation and relevance for SME in Tyrol were awarded this price.

DI Mag. Dr. Michael Felderer, award winner at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck, developed in his dissertation a test method to reduce software errors and security holes which are usually only identified once the software is operative.

The „Telling TestStories“ method deals with systems tests in an innovative manner - i.e. testing for functionality of the entire software system to be developed - in an innovative way. To achieve this a language to define and execute tests was developed. This language bridges the customer and specialist to the developer and the executable codes. With a model-based language functional test cases are described by a customer or a domain expert. These descriptions are then  automatically transformed into test cases. This way system tests can be executed effectively and efficiently - this in turn is of high practical relevance in order to save time, money and other resources in the test process. Current studies show that in software projects an average of 50 % of the total cost are attributed to testing. Also: finding and fixing an error after a software has been dispatched can be up to 100 times more expensive then finding and fixing the error during die system definition phase. The developed model-based test method enables the definition of system tests, already at an early stage of the software development process and to check formally for completeness and

The Science Award of the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce is awarded to students at the Faculty of Management, the Faculty of Economics and Statistics, the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics as well as the Management Centre Innsbruck (MCI) and the College of Higher Education Kufstein.

Telling TestStories
Michael Felderer
Research Group Quality Engineering