Welcome

The workshops on the Automation of Software Test (AST) seek high quality research and case study papers on the theory and practice of software test automation whilst encouraging discussions through Charette presentations. The focus of AST is aimed at providing researchers and practitioners with a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences, developing an understanding of the fundamental challenges, articulating a vision for the future, and finding promising solutions to pressing problems.

AST 2011 is the 6th edition of the workshop since 2006. The authors are invited to submit their original work on topics including, but not limited to, the methodology, technology development and transfer, software tools and environments, and experience reports related to the automation of software testing. In addition to regular research papers, the workshop will also have a industrial case study track to feature papers reporting the state of practice in the automation of software testing. In an effort to enable participants to propose and prioritize challenges and to interactively work out potential solutions, the workshop also has a charette discussion session, which focuses on a special important topic. Aligned with the ICSE 2011 conference theme of Software by Design, the special topic for AST 2011 is on relating software design to test automation.

Authors of best papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their work to a special issue on AST 2011 in The Journal of Systems and Software - Elsevier.