On Capturing Effects of Modifications as Data Dependencies

Dependence analysis on an Extended Finite State Machine (EFSM) representation of the requirements of a system under test has been used in requirements-based regression testing for regression test suite (RTS) reduction (reducing the size of a given test suite by eliminating redundancies), for RTS prioritization (ordering test cases in a given test suite for early fault detection) or for RTS selection (selecting a subset of a test suite covering the identified dependencies). These particular uses of dependence analysis are based on definitions of various types of control and data dependencies (between transitions in an EFSM) caused by a given set of modifications on the requirements. This abstract considers the definitions of data dependencies, gives examples of incompleteness of existing definitions, and presents insights on completing these definitions.