Metaheuristic Techniques for Test Case Generation

The primary objective of software testing is to locate bugs as many as possible in software by using an optimum set of test cases. Optimum set of test cases are obtained by selection procedure which can be viewed as an optimization problem. So metaheuristic optimizing (searching) techniques have been immensely used to automate software testing task. The application of metaheuristic searching techniques in software testing is termed as Search Based Testing. Non-redundant, reliable and optimized test cases can be generated by the search based testing with less effort and time. This article presents a systematic review on several meta heuristic techniques like Genetic Algorithms, Particle Swarm optimization, Ant Colony Optimization, Bee Colony optimization, Cuckoo Searches, Tabu Searches and some modified version of these algorithms used for test case generation. The authors also provide one framework, showing the advantages, limitations and future scope or gap of these research works which will help in further research on these works.

Forest Optimization based Test Case Generation for Multiple Paths with Metamorphic Relations

In general multiple paths are covered by multiple runs which is a time consuming task. Now a days, metaheuristic techniques are widely used for path coverage. In order to reduce the time, an efficient method is proposed based on Forest Optimization Algorithm (FOA) with Metamorphic Relations (MRs) that cover multiple paths at a time in one run unlike the traditional search based testing. In the proposed approach, initial test case is generated using FOA, the successive test cases are generated using MRs without undergoing several runs. The motive of using FOA is that the searching mechanism of this algorithm having resemblance with the branch / path coverage techniques of testing. To the best of our knowledge, FOA has not been implemented in software testing. The experimental results are compared with three existing work. The efficiency of simply FOA is also shown how it able to cover multiple paths. The results show that FOA with MRs is more efficient in terms of time consumption and number of paths covered.

Framework for Reusable Test Case Generation in Software Systems Testing

Agile methodologies have become the preferred choice for modern software development. These methods focus on iterative and incremental development, where both requirements and solutions develop through collaboration among cross-functional software development teams. The success of a software system is based on the quality result of each stage of development with proper test practice. A software test ontology should represent the required software test knowledge in the context of the software tester. Reusing test cases is an effective way to improve the testing of software. The workload of a software tester for test-case generation can be improved, previous software testing experience can be shared, and test efficiency can be increased by automating software testing. In this chapter, the authors introduce a software testing framework (STF) that uses rule-based reasoning (RBR), case-based reasoning (CBR), and ontology-based semantic similarity assessment to retrieve the test cases from the case library. Finally, experimental results are used to illustrate some of the features of the framework.