A Constraint-based Test Suite Reduction Method for Conservative Regression Testing

In regression testing, an important problem is how to select a smaller size of test set for execution. We present a novel constraint-oriented test suite reduction method for conservative regression testing by which we mean that all bugs discovered must be revealed by the reduced test suite. A test constraint for a bug is Boolean formulas defined over the input variables of program under test. The reduced test constraints for a pool of bugs are constructed using the subsumption relationship between test constraint conditions. Test case selection is based on the reduced test constraint set. A test case is selected into the test suite when and only when it satisfies one or more test constraints. The selection process is completed when all test constraint conditions are satisfied by the selected test cases. An empirical study is conducted and the experimental results show that our method can significantly save efforts for the conservative regression testing.