¹Software Technology Institute, Dalian Jiao Tong University, Dalian, China
²Mechanical Engineering Institute, Dalian Jiao Tong University, Dalian, China
³Management Institute, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

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Abstract—Regression test is an effective means to ensure the quality of software. But the test efficiency will become lower and lower as the test case library becomes increasingly large in the test. Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency and quality of regression test, it is necessary to implement the test case safety reduction. The optimization selection of the test case is an effective means of the test case safety reduction. In order to solve the problem of test cases optimization selection, this paper proposes a test case selection method based on the improved harmony search algorithm. Specifically, the researcher adds an excellent harmony element library based on the classical harmony search algorithm for storing the searched excellent test case; meanwhile, he also improves the way of generating the new harmony to allow these excellent test cases to be retained with a certain probability. In the search process, the researcher makes the adaptive adjustment of the algorithm parameter BW in a non-linear incremental manner, improving the global search capability of the algorithm. In addition, the excellence protection strategies are also increased to prevent against the degradation in the optimization search process. In order to verify the feasibility of the improved algorithm, the researcher writes four programs: the genetic algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, classical harmony algorithm and improved algorithm, and conducted the comparative experiment. The experimental result shows that the improved algorithm significantly improves the optimization search performance compared with the classical harmony search algorithm and has the better performance compared with the genetic algorithm and differential evolution algorithm.

Index Terms—regression test; test case selection problem; harmony search algorithm

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Cite: Ming Huang, Shujie Guo, Xu Liang, Xuan Jiao, "Application of Improved Harmony Search Algorithm in Test Case Selection," Journal of Software vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1170-1176, 2014.