Search‐based software engineering for constructing covering arrays

Abstract

Search-based software engineering involves the application of optimisation methods to solve software engineering problems. One of the most significant difficulties in testing software systems is the effort needed to build the test suites required to validate a software system, which efficiently exposes faults. Given the importance of the software testing stage, a specific sub-area known as search-based software testing has become relevant in recent years. In this work, a search-based software testing algorithm for constructing covering arrays is proposed. A covering array is a combinatorial structure that can be used as a set of test cases. By utilising this algorithm, the authors reduce the size of 893 test suites.