Efficient Time-Aware Prioritization with Knapsack Solvers

Sara Alspaugh, Kristen R. Walcott, Michael Belanich, Gregory M. Kapfhammer, and Mary Lou Soffa. Efficient Time-Aware Prioritization with Knapsack Solvers. In the Proceedings of the ASE 2007 Workshop on Empirical Assessment of Software Engineering Languages and Technologies. Atlanta, Georgia, November 2007.

Abstract

Regression testing is frequently performed in a time constrained environment. This paper explains how 0/1 knapsack solvers (e.g., greedy, dynamic programming, and the core algorithm) can identify a test suite reordering that rapidly covers the test requirements and always terminates within a specified limit for testing time. We conducted experiments that reveal fundamental trade-offs in the (i) time and space costs that are associated with creating a reordered test suite and (ii) quality of the resulting prioritization. Knapsack-based prioritizers that ignore the overlap in test case coverage incur a low time overhead and a moderate to high space overhead while creating prioritizations exhibiting a minor to modest decrease in effectiveness. We also find that the most sophisticated 0/1 knapsack solvers do not always identify the most effective prioritization, suggesting that overlap-aware prioritizers with a higher time overhead are still useful in certain testing contexts.

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Related Presentations:

Sara Alspaugh, Kristen R. Walcott, Michael Belanich, Gregory M. Kapfhammer, and Mary Lou Soffa. Efficient Time-Aware Prioritization with Knapsack Solvers. Presented at the ASE 2007 Workshop on Empirical Assessment of Software Engineering Languages and Technologies. Atlanta, Georgia, November 5, 2007.
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