An empirical study of regression test selection techniques

Regression testing is an expensive maintenance process directed at validating modified software. Regression test selection techniques attempt to reduce the cost of regression testing by selecting tests from a program's existing test suite. Many regression test selection techniques have been proposed. Although there have been some analytical and empirical evaluations of individual techniques, to our knowledge only one comparative study, focusing on one aspect of two of these techniques, has been performed. We conducted an experiment to examine the relative costs and benefits of several regression test selection techniques. The experiment examined five techniques for reusing tests, focusing on their relative abilities to reduce regression testing effort and uncover faults in modified programs. Our results highlight several differences between the techniques, and expose essential tradeoffs that should be considered when choosing a technique for practical application.