CAREER: Context-aware Regression Testing Techniques and Empirical Evaluations of Their Economic Impact

成功的软件系统不断发展：它们被增强、修正并移植到新的平台上。为了确保修改系统的质量，软件工程师执行回归测试，但是这可能是昂贵的，这取决于系统的大小和它们的复杂性，并且在软件成本中占很大比例。由于诸如此类的原因，研究人员花费了大量的时间来创建和经验地研究各种技术，以提高回归测试的成本效益。尽管取得了进展，但回归测试问题的三个重要方面尚未得到考虑：(1)涉及测试发生的上下文的因素；(2)评估整个系统生命周期的回归技术；(3)适当的经济模型，捕捉重要的成本因素，量化回归测试技术和策略的效益。这项工作将为在实际的方法中评估各种回归测试技术和策略的成本效益奠定基础。此外，这项工作的发现将提高软件的可靠性，对依赖该软件的所有组织和人员都有潜在的好处。该项目通过执行以下活动来解决这些问题：(1)创建处理测试过程和领域上下文的具有成本效益的回归测试技术，(2)创建处理系统生命周期的回归测试策略，(3)创建能够充分评估技术和策略的经济模型，以及(4)通过严格的经验方法来评估和细化这些技术和策略。

Successful software systems evolve: they are enhanced, corrected, and ported to new platforms. To ensure the quality of modified systems, software engineers perform regression testing, but this can be expensive depending on the size of the systems and their complexity and is responsible for a significant percentage of the cost of software. For reasons such as this, researchers have spent a great deal of time creating and empirically studying various techniques for improving the cost-effectiveness of regression testing. Despite the progress, three important aspects of the regression testing problem have not been considered: (1) factors involving the context in which testing occurs; (2) assessment of regression techniques across entire system lifetimes; (3) proper economic models that capture important cost factors and quantify benefits of regression testing techniques and strategies. This work will lay a foundation for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of various regression testing techniques and strategies in practical ways. Further, the discoveries made by this work will promote software dependability, with potential benefits to all organizations and people who depend on that software.This project addresses these issues by performing the following activities:(1) Creating cost-effective regression testing techniques that address the testing process and domain contexts,(2) Creating regression testing strategies that address system lifetimes, (3) Creating economic models that enable the adequate assessment of techniques and strategies, and(4) Evaluating and refining these techniques and strategies through rigorous empirical approaches.