An optimal combination test suite construction method

Test data generation is a key problem of combination software testing. However, the complexity of test case generation problem for combinatorial testing is NP-complete. In this study, we propose a global optimization and generation method to construct combinatorial testing data. Firstly, an encoding mechanism is used to map the combinatorial testing problem domain to a binary coding space. Then, an improving ethnic group evolution algorithm (EGEA/H) is used to search the binary coding space in order to find the optimal code schema. After that, a decoding mechanism is used to read out the composition information of combinatorial testing data from the optimal code schema and construct optimal combinatorial testing suite according to it. The simulation results show this method is simple and effective, and it has the characteristics of less producing test data and time consumption.