Data underlying the publication: Mining Software Testing Knowledge from Stack Overflow

This paper aims to uncover and gather testing-related information from Stack Overflow, highlighting it as a valuable resource for practitioners seeking answers and guidance. The objective of the study is to accumulate knowledge from real-life experiences shared on Stack Overflow and bridge the knowledge gap between industry practices and teaching practices. The paper explores different types of software testing, popular frameworks, temporal trends of those frameworks, controversial opinions, and recommended practices/tips/advice/suggestions from Stack Overflow posts. The methodology involves determining search terms through literature, querying the Stack Exchange API, conducting frequency analysis of words from posts, and manually inspecting threads. Our results show that Selenium, Spring, JMeter, and React are the most popular frameworks discussed. Automated testing and JavaScript frameworks have shown an upward trajectory over the years. The recommendations made by practitioners were categorized based on the broad scope of topics covered. We draw comparisons and parallels with related previous research and discuss the technical limitations faced during the study. Overall, this paper uncovers valuable insights from Stack Overflow and provides practitioners with current knowledge of industry practices.本研究旨在挖掘并整理Stack Overflow平台上的软件测试相关信息，凸显其为寻求解答与指导的从业者提供的宝贵资源价值。本研究的核心目标是从Stack Overflow平台共享的真实实践经验中积累知识，弥合工业界实践与教学实践之间的知识鸿沟。本研究探讨了各类软件测试方法、主流测试框架、这些框架的时序发展趋势、争议性观点，以及Stack Overflow帖子中提及的推荐实践、技巧与建议。本研究采用的方法包括通过文献调研确定搜索词、调用Stack Exchange API进行查询、对帖子文本开展词频分析，以及人工审核讨论串。研究结果显示，Selenium、Spring、JMeter与React是被讨论最多的测试框架。自动化测试与JavaScript框架在近年呈现出持续上升的发展态势。从业者提出的各类建议可根据其所覆盖的宽泛主题范畴进行分类。本研究与既往相关研究进行了对比分析，并探讨了研究过程中遇到的技术局限性。总体而言，本研究从Stack Overflow平台挖掘出了极具价值的研究见解，并为从业者提供了工业界当前的实践认知。