Cost and Coverage Based Test Case Prioritization

Test case prioritization techniques schedule test cases for execution in an order that attempts to maximize some objective function. A variety of objective functions are applicable; one such function involves rate of fault detection-a measure of how quickly faults are detected within the testing process. An improved rate of fault detection during regression testing can provide faster feedback on a system under regression test and let debuggers begin their work earlier than might otherwise be possible. In this paper, we describe several techniques for prioritizing test cases and report our results measuring the effectiveness of these techniques for improving rate of fault detection. We have computed two different categories of metrices viz.fault criterion based and coverage criterion based. Metrices like, the average rate of fault detection(APFD), Average rate of fault detection with cost (APFDc), come under the first category while Average Percentage of Statement Coverage (APSC), Average Percentage of Branch Coverage (APBC), Average Percentage of Loop Coverage (APLC) and Average Percentage of Condition Coverage (APCC) come under the second category. Test cases were executed using JUnit tool. Code cover tool is used to find code coverage information. Test case prioritization is performed based on coverage and cost information. The results provide insights into the tradeoffs among various techniques for test case prioritization.