---

The process of developing or evolving a software system involves many activities and different techniques and tools have been used to help building a reliable product. New project development ideas and programming principles have been suggested to support the software development process. This scenario stands out the need of having qualified software. Software testing plays an essential role to uncover and correct as many of the potential errors as possible. Without an adequate technique to assure quality and reliability, the software system may decrease over its lifetime. A Benchmarking Framework (BF) has been proposed in this regard defining criteria and appropriated guidelines to assess the representativeness of empirical studies. Therefore, this dissertation presents a Testware Support with test core elements addressing test concerns to purport the capabilities of a software project against testing directions to conduct the project into the right test direction. The effectiveness of it is assessed through its appliance in two different studies with AO applications and the evaluation of the BF extension considering the insertion of the testware support.

---

Liana is an ISTQB professional focused on software quality and IT systems since 2002. Graduated (Bachelor´s Degree) in Computer Science in 2005. Earned a Master´s Degree (MSc) in Computer Engineering in 2009. Currently progressing in career outside native country, employed in Switzerland by SapientNitro.

---