Search based test suite minimization for fault detection and localization: A co-driven method

Abstract

Fault detection and fault localization are two independent but important processes in software testing, in which test cases and associated information are usually used. As there are different goals of the two processes, i.e., detect faults early and locate faults accurately, different information of test cases are required and thus different subsets of test cases are selected to achieve the goals. In general, fault localization is adjacent to fault detection. However, independence of these two processes will restrict the automatic process of software testing. This paper proposes an automatic approach to combining fault detection and fault localization, where a multi-objective optimization for test suite minimization is presented to balance and achieve the both goals. Empirical studies show the proposed method can give consideration to both fault detection and fault localization with a high test suite reduction ratio.