International Journal of Computer Science Engineering
and Information Technology Research (IJCSEITR)
ISSN 2249-6831
Vol. 3, Issue 2, Jun 2013, 417-424
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.
SELECTION AND PRIORITIZATION OF TEST CASES IN REGRESSION TESTING OF
WEB SERVICES
NEHA AGARWAL
1
& MANALI GUPTA
2
1
Computer Science, Amity University, Noida, India
2
Information Technology, ITS College, Noida, India
ABSTRACT
As Web services grow in maturity and use, so do the methods which are being used to test and maintain them.
Regression Testing is a major component of most major testing systems but has only begun to be applied to Web services.
A number of different approaches have been studied to maximize the value of the accrued test suite: minimization,
selection and prioritization. Test suite minimization seeks to eliminate redundant test cases in order to reduce the number
of tests to run. Regression test selection optimizes the regression testing process by selecting a subset of all tests, while still
maintaining some level of confidence about the system performing no worse than the unmodified system. Test case
prioritization seeks to order test cases in such a way that early fault detection is maximized. This paper surveys each area
of minimization, selection and prioritization technique and discusses open problems and potential directions for future
research.
KEYWORDS: Regression Testing, Test Case Prioritization, Test Case Selection, APFD Metric
INTRODUCTION
Web services have enabled business workflows to be extended beyond the boundaries of companies and
organizations. Since the business world often involves very rapid change to keep up with current market conditions, the
business processes inevitably need frequent adjustment, along with their supporting Web services. Every time the system is
modified, we must ensure that the modification does not have an adverse affect on any unmodified areas, or regions, of code
(the modification does not introduce new problems into the code).Typically, this is done by running the test cases previously
used to test the system prior to modification again.
This processing of “retesting” is called regression testing and its goal is to determine whether or not the system has
been made worse by the modification. Reducing the number of tests be rerun is called regression test selection. An ideal
regression test selection technique for the verification of Web service systems would have the following properties: 1) safe,
2) interoperable, 3) compos able, 4) decentralized, 5) end-to-end, and 6) automated. The testing and analysis of web
services have posed new foundational and practical challenges, such as the non- observability problem , the extensive
presence of non-executable artifacts within and among web services, safeguards against malicious messages from external
parties, ultra-late binding and cross- organizational issues. Many web services (or services for short) use the Web Services
Description Language (WSDL) (W3C) to specify their functional interfaces and message parameters. They also use XML
documents to represent the messages.
WEB SERVICES
Web services refer to self-contained web applications that are loosely coupled, distributed, capable of performing
business activities, and possessing the ability to engage other web applications in order to complete higher-order business
transactions, all programmatically accessible through standard internet protocols, such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer