An empirical study of regression test application frequency

Regression testing is an expensive maintenance process used to revalidate modified software. Regression test selection (RTS) techniques attempt to reduce the cost of regression testing by selecting and running a subset of an existing test suite. Many RTS techniques have been proposed in the research literature, and studies have shown that they can produce savings. Other studies have shown that the cost-effectiveness of RTS techniques can vary widely with various characteristics of the workloads (programs, versions, and test suites) to which they are applied. It seems plausible, however, that another set of factors impacting the cost-effectiveness of RTS techniques involves the process by which they are applied. In particular, issues such as the frequency with which regression testing is done have a strong effect on the behavior of RTS techniques. Therefore, in earlier work an experiment was conducted to assess the effects of test application frequency on the cost-effectiveness of RTS ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Jung-Min Kim, Adam A. Porter, Gregg Rothermel
• Keywords: ICSE 2000, Regression Testing, RTS Techniques, Software Engineering, Test Suites