Construction Optimal Combination Test Suite Based on Ethnic Group Evolution Algorithm

The optimal test case suite constructing problem is defined thus: given a set of test requirements and a test suite that satisfies all test requirements, find a subset of the test suite containing a minimum number of test cases that still satisfies all test requirements. Existing methods for solving test case suite generation problem do not guarantee that obtained test suite is optimal. In this study, we propose a global optimization and generation method to construct optimal combinatorial testing data. Firstly, an encoding mechanism is used to map the combinatorial testing problem domain to a binary coding space. After that, an improving ethnic group evolution algorithm is used to search the binary coding space in order to find the optimal code schema. Finally, a decoding mechanism is used to read out the composition information of combinatorial testing data from the optimal code schema and construct optimal test case suite according to it. The simulation results show this method is simple and effective and it has the characteristics of less producing test data and time consumption.