A review for improving software change using traceability model with test effort estimation

Abstract

Maintaining a software system includes tasks such as fixing defects, adding new features, or modifying the software (software changes) to accommodate different environments. Then, the modified software system needs to be tested, to ensure the changes will not having any adverse effects on the previously validated code. Regression testing is one of the approaches which software tester used to test the software system. The traditional regression testing strategy was to repeat all the previous tests and retesting all the features of the program even for small modifications. For programming with thousand lines of codes (LOC), the cost of retesting the entire system is expensive if attempted after every change. This practice is becoming increasingly difficult because of the demand for testing the new functionalities and correcting errors with limited resources. Numerous techniques and tools have been proposed and developed to reduce the costs of regression testing and to aid regression testing processes, such as test suite reduction, test case prioritization, and test case done on the thresholds and weightings used in regression testing. However, there is still need to study on the software traceability model of coverage analysis in software changes during regression testing and test effort estimation on regression testing. Hence, this paper describes the proposal for improving software changes with hybrid traceability model and test effort estimation during regression testing. We will explain our proposed work including the problem background, the intended research objectives, literature review and plan for future implementation. This study is expected to contribute in developing hybrid traceability model for large software development project to support software changes during regression testing with test estimation approach and expected to reduce operational cost during the implementation on software maintenance. Also, it is hoped that an efficient and improve solution to regression testing can be realized, thus, gives the benefits to software testers and project manager manage the software maintenance task since it is a critical part in software project development.