An Improved Metric for Test Case Prioritization

Test case prioritization is an effective and practical technique of regression testing. To illustrate its effectiveness, many test metrics were proposed. In this paper, the physical meanings of these metrics were explained and their limitations were pointed out. Then, an improved metric and its extension for test case prioritization were proposed. The case study indicates that, compared with existing metrics, our new metric can provide much more precise illustration of the effectiveness of test case prioritization techniques.