回归测试中的测试用例优先排序技术述评

测试用例优先排序(test case prioritization,简称TCP)问题是回归测试研究中的一个热点.通过设定特定排序准则,对测试用例进行排序以优化其执行次序,旨在最大化排序目标,例如最大化测试用例集的早期缺陷检测速率.TCP问题尤其适用于因测试预算不足以致不能执行完所有测试用例的测试场景.首先对TCP问题进行描述,并依次从源代码、需求和模型这3个角度出发对已有的TCP技术进行分类；然后对一类特殊的TCP问题(即测试资源感知的TCP问题)的已有研究成果进行总结；随后依次总结实证研究中常用的评测指标、评测数据集和缺陷类型对实证研究结论的影响；接着依次介绍TCP技术在一些特定测试领域中的应用,包括组合测试、事件驱动型应用测试、Web服务测试和缺陷定位等；最后对下一步工作进行展望.

Survey of Test Case Prioritization Techniques for Regression Testing

Test case prioritization (TCP) issue is a hot research topic in regression testing research. This method tries to optimize the execution schedule based on a specific prioritization criterion. The purpose of the TCP techniques is to maximize a specific prioritization objective, such as the early fault detection rate of the original test suite. This technique is especially applied to some testing scenarios, for example testing resource is limited for executing all the test cases. This paper first describes the issue of TCP and classifies the existing TCP techniques into three categories: source code, requirement, and model. The paper secondly formulates a specific TCP issue (i.e., resource-aware TCP issue) and summarizes its research work. The paper finally summarizes commonly-used evaluation metrics and subjects in experimental studies, and empirical result affection of different fault injection types. The paper fourthly summarizes the application of TCP in some specific testing domains, such as combinatorial testing, event-driven applications testing, fault localization, and Web services testing and discusses some future work of the TCP issue.