Coverage Based Test Suite Augmentation Techniques-a Survey

Regression testing is the activity of retesting a program so as to ensure that no new errors have been introduced into the previously tested code. However this activity does not involve rerunning the entire test suite but selecting only a few test cases that exercise the changes. Suppose there is a program P and P’ is it’s modified version. The regression test suite so selected must be able to reveal the differences between P and P’ that would help the developer discover errors caused by changes. More and more emphasis has been laid in identifying the regression test suites and ordering them. However, less focus have been laid on the effectiveness of regression test suite in response to changes. While performing regression testing we also need to check whether the existing test suites are sufficient for handling the changes that are introduced. If they are not adequate then providing guidance for creating the new test cases that would be targeting the changed behavior of the program. This problem is called as test suite augmentation. Many test suite augmentation techniques have been proposed in this regard. The main aim of this paper is to explain the concept of test suite augmentation and review the existing techniques based on coverage criteria.