Tássio Guerreiro Antunes Virgínio

@professor

ifto.edu.br

Tássio Guerreiro Antunes Virgínio


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https://researchid.co/tassiovirginio

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Computer Science
8

Scopus Publications

264

Scholar Citations

7

Scholar h-index

7

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Quality Assessment of Python Tests Generated by Large Language Models
    Victor Alves, Carla Bezerra, Ivan Machado, Larissa Rocha, Tassio Virgínio, Publio Silva
    Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering Ease 2025 Edition Ease 2025, 2025
    The manual generation of test scripts is a time-intensive, costly, and error-prone process, indicating the value of automated solutions. Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown great promise in this domain, leveraging their extensive knowledge to produce test code more efficiently. This study investigates the quality of Python test code generated by three LLMs: GPT-4o, Amazon Q, and LLama 3.3. We evaluate the structural reliability of test suites generated under two distinct prompt contexts: Text2Code (T2C) and Code2Code (C2C). Our analysis includes the identification of errors and test smells, with a focus on correlating these issues to inadequate design patterns. Our findings reveal that most test suites generated by the LLMs contained at least one error or test smell. Assertion errors were the most common, comprising 64% of all identified errors, while the test smell Lack of Cohesion of Test Cases was the most frequently detected (41%). Prompt context significantly influenced test quality; textual prompts with detailed instructions often yielded tests with fewer errors but a higher incidence of test smells. Among the evaluated LLMs, GPT-4o produced the fewest errors in both contexts (10% in C2C and 6% in T2C), whereas Amazon Q had the highest error rates (19% in C2C and 28% in T2C). For test smells, Amazon Q had fewer detections in the C2C context (9%), while LLama 3.3 performed best in the T2C context (10%). Additionally, we observed a strong relationship between specific errors, such as assertion or indentation issues, and test case cohesion smells. These findings demonstrate opportunities for improving the quality of test generation by LLMs and highlight the need for future research to explore optimized generation scenarios and better prompt engineering strategies.
  • How Aware Are We of Test Smells in Quantum Software Systems? A Preliminary Empirical Evaluation
    Tássio Virgínio, Larissa Bastos, Carla Bezerra, Márcio Ribeiro, Ivan Machado
    ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2024
  • An empirical evaluation of RAIDE: A semi-automated approach for test smells detection and refactoring
    Railana Santana, Luana Martins, Tássio Virgínio, Larissa Rocha, Heitor Costa, Ivan Machado
    Science of Computer Programming, 2024
  • Refactoring Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert test smells: a controlled experiment
    Cibse 2022 Xxv Ibero American Conference on Software Engineering, 2022
  • An empirical study of automatically-generated tests from the perspective of test smells
    Tássio Virgínio, Luana Almeida Martins, Larissa Rocha Soares, Railana Santana, Heitor Costa, Ivan Machado
    ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2020
    Developing test code can be as or more expensive than developing production code. Commonly, developers use automated unit test generators to speed up software testing. The purpose of such tools is to shorten production time without decreasing code quality. Nonetheless, unit tests usually do not have a quality check layer above testing code, which might be hard to guarantee the quality of the generated tests. A strategy to verify the tests quality is to analyze the presence of test smells in test code. Test smells are characteristics in the test code that possibly indicate weaknesses in test design and implementation. Their presence could be used as a quality indicator. In this paper, we present an empirical study to analyze the quality of unit test code generated by automated test tools. We compare the tests generated by two tools (Randoop and Evo- Suite) with the existing unit test suite of twenty-one open-source Java projects. We analyze the unit test code to detect the presence of nineteen types of test smells. The results indicated significant differences in the unit test quality when comparing data from the automated unit test generators and existing unit test suites.
  • RAIDE: A tool for Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert identification and refactoring
    Railana Santana, Luana Martins, Larissa Rocha, Tássio Virgínio, Adriana Cruz, Heitor Costa, Ivan Machado
    ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2020
    Test smells are fragments of code that can affect the comprehensibility and the maintainability of the test code. Preventing, detecting, and correcting test smells are tasks that may require a lot of effort, and might not scale to large-sized projects when carried out manually. Currently, there are many tools available to support test smells detection. However, they usually do not provide neither a user-friendly interface nor automated support for refactoring the test code to remove test smells. In this work, we propose RAIDE, an open-source and IDE-integrated tool. RAIDE assists testers with an environment for automated detection of lines of code affected by test smells, as well as a semi-automated refactoring for Java projects using the JUnit framework.
  • JNose: Java Test Smell Detector
    Tássio Virgínio, Luana Martins, Larissa Rocha, Railana Santana, Adriana Cruz, Heitor Costa, Ivan Machado
    ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2020
    Several strategies have been proposed for test quality measurement and analysis. Code coverage is likely the most widely used one. It enables to verify the ability of a test case to cover as many source code branches as possible. Although code coverage has been widely used, novel strategies have been recently employed. It is the case of test smells analysis, which has been introduced as an affordable strategy to evaluate the quality of test code. Test smells are poor design choices in implementation, and their occurrence in test code might reduce the quality of test suites. Test smells identification is clearly dependent on tool support, otherwise it could become a cost-ineffective strategy. However, as far as we know, there is no tool that combines code coverage and test smells to address test quality measurement. In this work, we present the JNose Test, a tool aimed to analyze test suite quality in the perspective of test smells. JNose Test detects code coverage and software evolution metrics and a set of test smells throughout software versions.
  • On the influence of test smells on test coverage
    Tássio Virgínio, Railana Santana, Luana Almeida Martins, Larissa Rocha Soares, Heitor Costa, Ivan Machado
    ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2019
    Software testing is a key practice in the software quality assurance process. Usually, the quality of a test is not analyzed before its execution, i.e., there are no tests to check the tests. When the quality of tests is not guaranteed, it may impair the quality of the software. Test Smells are an alternative to indicate problems in the test code that can affect test maintainability, more specifically readability and comprehension. This study investigates correlations between test coverage and test smells types. We also introduce the JNose Test, a tool to automate test smells detection. We analyzed 11 open source projects and detected 21 types of smells and 10 different test coverage metrics to each test class. We identified 63 out of 210 calculated correlations. Our results show that there is a relationship between test smells and test coverage, in which test smells may influence code coverage. Our findings might support software testers and help them understand the behavior and consequences of poorly written and designed tests.

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Identifying and Addressing Test Smells in JavaScript: A Developer-Centric Study
    J Oliveira, L Mateus, G Amaral, T Virgínio, C Bezerra, I Machado, L Rocha
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 193-203 , 2025
    2025
  • AriesLinter: Sniffing Test Smells Before They Happen
    R Rocha, E Junior, T Virgínio, L Rocha, C Bezerra, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 990-995 , 2025
    2025
  • DNose: Dart Test Smell Detector
    T Virgínio, M Ribeiro, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 976-982 , 2025
    2025
  • On the prevalence of test smells in mobile development
    T Virgínio, M Ribeiro, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Testes de Software Sistemático e Automatizado (SAST … , 2025
    2025
  • Quality Assessment of Python Tests Generated by Large Language Models
    V Alves, C Bezerra, I Machado, L Rocha, T Virgínio, P Silva
    Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and … , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 2
  • SNUTS.js: Sniffing Nasty Unit Test Smells in Javascript
    LR Jhonatan Oliveira, Luigi Mateus, Tássio Virgínio
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 6
  • How Aware Are We of Test Smells in Quantum Software Systems? A Preliminary Empirical Evaluation
    T VIRGINIO, LR SOARES, B C, M Ribeiro, I MACHADO
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software 2024 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • An empirical evaluation of RAIDE: A semi-automated approach for test smells detection and refactoring
    R Santana, L Martins, T Virgínio, L Rocha, H Costa, I Machado
    Science of Computer Programming 231, 103013 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 13
  • An empirical evaluation of RAIDE: a semi-automated approach for test smells detection and refactoring
    IM Railana Santana, Luana Martins, Tássio Virgínio, Larissa Rocha, Heitor Costa
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2023.103013 1 , 2023
    2023
  • Refactoring Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert test smells: a controlled experiment
    R Santana, L Martins, T Virgínio, L Soares, H Costa, I Machado
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.05539 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 14
  • Avaliação empírica da geração automatizada de testes de software sob a perspectiva de Test Smells
    TGA Virgínio, I Machado
    Congresso Brasileiro de Software: Teoria e Prática (CBSoft), 112-126 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 4
  • On the test smells detection: an empirical study on the jnose test accuracy
    T Virgínio, L Martins, R Santana, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Journal of Software Engineering 9, 8 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 21
  • RAIDE: a tool for Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert identification and refactoring
    R Santana, L Martins, L Rocha, T Virgínio, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 374-379 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 53
  • Jnose: Java test smell detector
    T Virgínio, L Martins, L Rocha, R Santana, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 564-569 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 77
  • An empirical study of automatically-generated tests from the perspective of test smells
    T Virgínio, LA Martins, LR Soares, R Santana, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 92-96 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 27
  • Abertura do XXXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering
    MA Gerosa, R Prikladnicki
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) , 2020
    2020
  • On the influence of test smells on test coverage
    T Virgínio, R Santana, LA Martins, LR Soares, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 467-471 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 45
  • Construção De Um Blog Como Uma Ferramenta De Compartilhamento De Informações E Na Promoção De Produtos Agrícolas
    T Virgínio, EC Dias, CT Mesquita, WBL Júnior, BP Galeazzi, PL Rego
    6ª JICE-JORNADA DE INICIAÇÃO CIENTÍFICA E EXTENSÃO , 2015
    2015
  • Implantação Da Indicação Geográfica Como Alternativa Sustentável Na Produção De Frutas No Sudeste Do Estado Do Tocantins
    EC Dias, WBL Junior, TGA Virgínio, CT Mesquita
    https://www.meioambientepocos.com.br/anais/ , 2015
    2015
  • Elaboração De Um Selo Distintivo Da Produção De Frutas Do Projeto Manuel Alves Na Região Sudeste Do Estado Do Tocantins
    WBL Júnior, EC Dias, T Virgínio, CT Mesquita, KPS Siqueira
    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wilmar-Borges-Leal-Junior/publication … , 2015
    2015

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Jnose: Java test smell detector
    T Virgínio, L Martins, L Rocha, R Santana, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 564-569 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 77
  • RAIDE: a tool for Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert identification and refactoring
    R Santana, L Martins, L Rocha, T Virgínio, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 374-379 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 53
  • On the influence of test smells on test coverage
    T Virgínio, R Santana, LA Martins, LR Soares, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 467-471 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 45
  • An empirical study of automatically-generated tests from the perspective of test smells
    T Virgínio, LA Martins, LR Soares, R Santana, H Costa, I Machado
    Proceedings of the XXXIV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering, 92-96 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 27
  • On the test smells detection: an empirical study on the jnose test accuracy
    T Virgínio, L Martins, R Santana, A Cruz, H Costa, I Machado
    Journal of Software Engineering 9, 8 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 21
  • Refactoring Assertion Roulette and Duplicate Assert test smells: a controlled experiment
    R Santana, L Martins, T Virgínio, L Soares, H Costa, I Machado
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.05539 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 14
  • An empirical evaluation of RAIDE: A semi-automated approach for test smells detection and refactoring
    R Santana, L Martins, T Virgínio, L Rocha, H Costa, I Machado
    Science of Computer Programming 231, 103013 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 13
  • SNUTS.js: Sniffing Nasty Unit Test Smells in Javascript
    LR Jhonatan Oliveira, Luigi Mateus, Tássio Virgínio
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 6
  • Avaliação empírica da geração automatizada de testes de software sob a perspectiva de Test Smells
    TGA Virgínio, I Machado
    Congresso Brasileiro de Software: Teoria e Prática (CBSoft), 112-126 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 4
  • Quality Assessment of Python Tests Generated by Large Language Models
    V Alves, C Bezerra, I Machado, L Rocha, T Virgínio, P Silva
    Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and … , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 2
  • How Aware Are We of Test Smells in Quantum Software Systems? A Preliminary Empirical Evaluation
    T VIRGINIO, LR SOARES, B C, M Ribeiro, I MACHADO
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Qualidade de Software 2024 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Identifying and Addressing Test Smells in JavaScript: A Developer-Centric Study
    J Oliveira, L Mateus, G Amaral, T Virgínio, C Bezerra, I Machado, L Rocha
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 193-203 , 2025
    2025
  • AriesLinter: Sniffing Test Smells Before They Happen
    R Rocha, E Junior, T Virgínio, L Rocha, C Bezerra, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 990-995 , 2025
    2025
  • DNose: Dart Test Smell Detector
    T Virgínio, M Ribeiro, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES), 976-982 , 2025
    2025
  • On the prevalence of test smells in mobile development
    T Virgínio, M Ribeiro, I Machado
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Testes de Software Sistemático e Automatizado (SAST … , 2025
    2025
  • An empirical evaluation of RAIDE: a semi-automated approach for test smells detection and refactoring
    IM Railana Santana, Luana Martins, Tássio Virgínio, Larissa Rocha, Heitor Costa
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2023.103013 1 , 2023
    2023
  • Abertura do XXXIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering
    MA Gerosa, R Prikladnicki
    Simpósio Brasileiro de Engenharia de Software (SBES) , 2020
    2020
  • Construção De Um Blog Como Uma Ferramenta De Compartilhamento De Informações E Na Promoção De Produtos Agrícolas
    T Virgínio, EC Dias, CT Mesquita, WBL Júnior, BP Galeazzi, PL Rego
    6ª JICE-JORNADA DE INICIAÇÃO CIENTÍFICA E EXTENSÃO , 2015
    2015
  • Implantação Da Indicação Geográfica Como Alternativa Sustentável Na Produção De Frutas No Sudeste Do Estado Do Tocantins
    EC Dias, WBL Junior, TGA Virgínio, CT Mesquita
    https://www.meioambientepocos.com.br/anais/ , 2015
    2015
  • Elaboração De Um Selo Distintivo Da Produção De Frutas Do Projeto Manuel Alves Na Região Sudeste Do Estado Do Tocantins
    WBL Júnior, EC Dias, T Virgínio, CT Mesquita, KPS Siqueira
    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wilmar-Borges-Leal-Junior/publication … , 2015
    2015