Automated techniques to detect faults early in large software applications

[Truncated abstract] Modern software applications are very complex and they need frequent changes as per the changes in user requirements. These applications are developed using the combination of various different programming languages. They consist of a multi-tiered application structure and have often a database as an essential tier. The correct functioning of a multi-tiered application is dependent on its interaction between different tiers and its database connectivity and storage. Most of these applications rely on a database server for serving client requests. Any changes in the database result in erroneous client interactions and may bring down the entire software application.

Software applications grow in size due to the change in user requirements and need a large number of test cases. Hence, it becomes very diffcult to execute a large number of test cases within a specified period of time. Researchers have suggested many Test Case Prioritisation (TCP) techniques and selection techniques for reducing testing time. A TCP technique reorders test cases to achieve early fault detection. The selection techniques help in selecting the subset of test cases from the large set of test cases that are required for the testing of particular functionalities. Most TCP techniques have been developed for eficient testing of source code of an application.