Harnessing Web-Based Application Similarities to Aid in Regression Testing

Web-based applications are growing in complexity and criticality, increasing the need for their precise validation. Regression testing is an established approach for providing information about the quality of an application in the face of recurring updates that dominate the web. We present techniques to address a key challenge of the automated regression testing of web-based applications. Innocuous program evolutions often appear to fail tests and must be manually inspected. We rely on inherent similarities between independent web-based applications to provide fully automated solutions for reducing the number of false positives associated with regression testing such applications, simultaneously focusing on returning all true positives. Our approach predicts which test cases merit human inspection by applying a model derived from regression testing other programs. We are 2.5 to 50 times as accurate as current industrial practice, but require no user annotations.