Test case prioritization using firefly algorithm for software testing

Abstract

Software testing is a vital and complex part of the software development life cycle. Optimization of software testing is still a major challenge, as prioritization of test cases remains unsatisfactory in terms of Average Percentage of Faults Detected (APFD) and time execution performance. This is attributed to a large search space to find an optimal ordering of test cases. In this paper, we have proposed an approach to prioritize test cases optimally using Firefly Algorithm. To optimize the ordering of test cases, we applied Firefly Algorithm with fitness function defined using a similarity distance model. Experiments were carried on three benchmark programs with test suites extracted from Software-artifact Infrastructure Repository (SIR). Our Test Case Prioritization (TCP) technique using Firefly Algorithm with similarity distance model demonstrated better if not equal in terms of APFD and time execution performance compared to existing works. Overall APFD results indicate that Firefly Algorithm is a promising competitor in TCP applications.