On the effects of test compaction on defect coverage

We study the effects of test compaction on the defect coverage of test sets for modeled faults. Using a framework proposed earlier, defects are represented by surrogate faults. Within this framework, we show that the defect coverage does not have to be sacrificed by test compaction, if the test set is computed using appropriate test generation objectives. Moreover, two test sets, one compacted and one non-compacted, generated using the same test generation objectives, typically have similar defect coverages, even if the compacted one is significantly smaller than the uncompacted one. Test generation procedures and experimental results to support these claims are presented