Symbiotic 8: Parallel and Targeted Test Generation

The setup of Symbiotic 8 for Test-Comp 2021 brings radical changes in the test generation for property. Similarly as in Symbiotic 7, we generate tests by running our fork of symbolic executor Klee on the analyzed program. Symbiotic 8, however, runs several instances of Klee in parallel. We run one instance of Klee on the original program and, simultaneously, we create one (intentionally unsound) program slice for every program-terminating instruction in the program and run Klee on these slices. Apart from this principal change, we also improved other components of the tool, mainly the program slicer. Further, our fork of Klee now supports symbolic pointer arithmetics and comparison of symbolic addresses.

Animals as Persons and Why It Matters

This book has been a protracted case in worst-case scenario philosophy. Assume the absolute worst about animals, and the most stringent conception of a person imaginable, and then argue that animals still qualify as persons. Some of the limitations of this strategy are identified. If animals are persons, it changes the way we think about our obligations to them. The principal change is from a treatment paradigm to a listening paradigm. In a treatment paradigm, the primary question is how we should treat them. This is an inadequate way of understanding our obligations to persons. For persons, prior to the question of how we should treat them is the necessity of listening to them: of learning to ask them the right questions and make ourselves capable of understanding their response.

Lessons Learned in Right-Sizing a UK Medium Size Manufacturing Site

This reflective case history explores the lessons learned by a medium-sized manufacturing site in the UK from a rightsizing initiative in 2008 and another in 2016. The 2008 lessons around the softer HRM topics of employee morale, skills gaps, and survivors struggling led to a different OCD approach being used for the 2016 rightsizing exercise. The author, a principal change agent who helped facilitate both OCD initiatives, critically reflects upon the respective change agency processes from an EBP perspective.