Multi-Criteria Test Case Prioritization Using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

One of the key challenges in software testing today is prioritizing and evaluating test cases. The decision of which test cases to design, select and execute first is of great importance, in particular considering that this needs to be done within tight resource constraints on time and budget. In practice, prioritized selection of test cases requires the evaluation of different test case criteria, and therefore, test case prioritization can be formulated as a multi-criteria decision making problem. As the number of decision criteria grows, application of a systematic decision making solution becomes a necessity. In this paper, we propose an approach for prioritized selection of test cases by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. To improve the practicality of the approach in real world scenarios, we apply AHP in a fuzzy environment so that criteria values can be specified using fuzzy variables when precise quantified values are not available. One of the advantages of the proposed decision making process is that the defined criteria with the biggest and most critical role in priority ranking of test cases is also identified. We have applied our approach on an example case in which several test cases for testing non-functional requirements in a systems are defined. Keywords–Software testing, Test case prioritization, MCDM, Fuzzy AHP, NFR, Fault detection.