A variable strength interaction test suites generation strategy using Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper highlights a novel strategy for generating variable-strength (VS) interaction test suites, called VS Particle Swarm Test Generator (VS-PSTG). As the name suggests, VS-PSTG adopts Particle Swarm Optimization to ensure optimal test size reduction. To determine its efficiency in terms of the size of the generated test suite, VS-PSTG was subjected to well-known benchmark configurations. Comparative results indicate that VS-PSTG gives competitive results as compared to existing strategies. An empirical case study was conducted on a non-trivial software system to show the applicability of the strategy and to determine the effectiveness of the generated test suites to detect faults.

• VS-PSTG strategy for generating variable-strength interaction test suites. • Adopt Particle Swarm Optimization to ensure optimal test suite size reduction. • VS-PSTG gives competitive results compared to existing variable-strength strategies. • Case study on a non-trivial software system shows the applicability of VS-PSTG. • Variable-strength test suite could be effective for software testing to detect faults.