An Improved Regression Test Selection Technique by Clustering Execution Profiles

Abstract—In order to improve the efficiency of regression testing, many test selection techniques have been proposed to extract a small subset from a huge test suite, which can approximate the fault detection capability of the original test suite for the modified codes. This paper presents a new regression test selection technique by clustering the execution profiles of modification-traversing test cases. Cluster analysis can group program executions that have similar features, so that program behaviors can be well understood and test cases can be selected in a proper way to reduce the test suite effectively. An experiment with some real programs is designed and implemented. The experiment results show that our approach can produce a smaller test suite with most fault-revealing test cases in comparison with existing selection techniques. Keywords-regression testing; cluster selection technique; test suite reduction; fault detection capability I