Insights into regression testing (software testing)

Abstract

A problem facing those conducting maintenance testing is to identify proper test classes. The notion of regression testability is introduced as a way to measure the ease of retesting. Both the program design and the test plan design may affect the regression testability of a program. The testing set, testing number, regression number and stable and workable metrics are developed to measure the program and the test plan and program testability is defined. The retest strategy is proposed for performing corrective regression testing. This approach involves the use of the test plan in a way that will reduce the amount of testing required. The guiding principle of the retest strategy is to view the regression testing problem as being composed of two subproblems (the test selection problem and the test plan update problem). To this end, the author's retest strategy consists of two major phases (the test classification phase and test plan update phase)