Application of Hierarchical Slicing to Regression Test Selection of Java Programs

Abstract

In this paper, first we propose a new slicing method to decompose a Java program into packages, classes, methods and statements that are affected due to the modification in the program. The decomposition is based on the hierarchical characteristic of Java. Then, by mapping these decompositions with the existing test suite, we derive a new test suite and add some new test cases, if necessary, to retest the modified program. We have proposed an intermediate representation of the Java program by considering all the possible dependencies among the program parts. This intermediate representation is used to identify the program constructs that are possibly affected by the change in the program. The packages, classes, methods, and statements thus affected are identified by traversing the intermediate graph, first in the forward direction and then in the backward direction. The test cases covering these affected parts of the program are then selected to retest the program.