Examining Search-Based Algorithms in Software Testing

Software testing is a way of improving software quality. It is an essential and an expensive phase of Software Development Life Cycle. There has been an ongoing research in this field to automate the process of software testing so that expenses can be reduced. But size and complexity of software pose hindrance in their automation. Meta-heuristic and evolutionary algorithms have proved to be much useful for automating the process of test generation. Usages of meta-heuristic approaches have led to the emergence of new field in software engineering. This field is known as Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE). SBSE is applicable to wide range of software engineering problems. Application of these approaches to software testing has come to be known as Search-Based Software Testing. This paper examines several search-based algorithms. These algorithms are compared to one another on the basis of various parameters taken into consideration. All of these algorithms are strongly dependent on problem domain as heuristics related to that domain are very much essential for carrying out execution of the problem using desired algorithm.

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