Test Case Prioritization: A New Approach

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Test Case Prioritization A New Approach

• By Otto Borchert

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Motivation

• Most companies are under heavy time and resource
  constraints when it comes to testing
• Test case prioritization allows the most useful
  tests to be executed first, exposing faults
  earlier in the testing process

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Research Question

• Are there any more methods of performing test
  case prioritization?

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Approach

• Most recent approaches involve no memory of
  previous test suite execution
• This approach uses previous test runs, not just
  previous test cases, to prioritize the test cases

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Approach

• For the first test run, use some old
  prioritization methods (Ex Random, FEP,
  statement, branch coverage)
• For 2..n test runs, prioritize test cases based
  on whether they have been run before
• Also give higher priority to test cases that
  exercise the same branches (Called Fault-Finding)
• You could also decrease test case priority based
  on whether it had been done before (Called
  Fault-Avoiding)

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Example
A B C D() E 1 x x x x 2 x x x x 3 x x x 4 x
x x x x Letters CFG nodes Numbers Test
Cases x Test case goes through that
node Fault-Finding 1, 4, 2, 3 Fault-Avoiding
2, 3, 1, 4
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Potential Experiments

• Run experiments using free and open source
  software, commercial partners, or pre-existing
  software testing programs (Siemens, Space, etc)
• Test the two new methods against each other (for
  Fault Age and Total Effort)
• Against other current methods

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Questions?