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Coverage‐based regression test case selection, minimization and prioritization: a case study on an industrial system
Author(s) -
Di Nardo Daniel,
Alshahwan Nadia,
Briand Lionel,
Labiche Yvan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
software testing, verification and reliability
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1099-1689
pISSN - 0960-0833
DOI - 10.1002/stvr.1572
Subject(s) - regression testing , minification , selection (genetic algorithm) , computer science , prioritization , fault detection and isolation , reliability engineering , suite , test suite , regression , fault (geology) , regression analysis , data mining , machine learning , test case , engineering , artificial intelligence , statistics , software , mathematics , software system , software construction , management science , archaeology , seismology , actuator , history , geology , programming language
Summary This paper presents a case study of coverage‐based regression testing techniques on a real world industrial system with real regression faults. The study evaluates four common prioritization techniques, a test selection technique, a test suite minimization technique and a hybrid approach that combines selection and minimization. The study also examines the effects of using various coverage criteria on the effectiveness of the studied approaches. The results show that prioritization techniques that are based on additional coverage with finer grained coverage criteria perform significantly better in fault detection rates. The study also reveals that using modification information in prioritization techniques does not significantly enhance fault detection rates. The results show that test selection does not provide significant savings in execution cost (<2%), which might be attributed to the nature of the changes made to the system. Test suite minimization using finer grained coverage criteria could provide significant savings in execution cost (79.5%) while maintaining a fault detection capability level above 70%, thus representing a possible trade‐off. The hybrid technique did not provide a significant improvement over traditional minimization techniques. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.