Using the Dependence Level Among Requirements to Priorize the Regression Testing Set and Characterize the Complexity of Requirements Change
André Di Thommazo, Kamilla Gomes Camargo, Elis Montoro Hernandes, Gislaine Gonçalves, Jefferson Pedro, Anderson Belgamo, Sandra Fabbri · 2015
Background: When there are changes in software requirements, other phases of software development are impacted and frequently, extra effort is needed to adjust the previous developed artifacts to new features or changes. However, if the development team has the traceability of requirements, the extra effort could be not an issue. An example is the software quality team, which needs to define effective tests cycles in each software release. Goal: This papers aims to present an approach based on requirements dependence level to support the regression test prioritization and identify the real impact of requirement changes. Method: The designed approach is based on automatic definition of Requirements Traceability Matrix with three different dependence levels. Moreover, dependence between requirement and test case is also defined. A case study in a real software development industry environment was performed to assess the approach. Results: Identifying the dependence level among requirements have allowed the quality assurance team priorize regression tests and, by means of these tests, defects are early identified if compared with tests execution without priorization. Moreover, the requirements changes complexity is also identified with the approach support. Conclusion: Results shows that definition of dependence levels among requirements gives two contributions: (i) allowing test prioritization definition, which become regression test cycle more effective, (ii) allowing characterize impacts of requirements changes, which is commonly requested by stakeholders.