Concurrency Issues in Automating RTS for Web Services

Abstract

Regression testing (RT), testing software with previously used test cases, is a mainstream practice in software maintenance. Regression test selection (RTS) is to reduce the number of tests which need to be retested. Safe RTS techniques add the assurance that no modification-revealing test case will be left unselected. Several effective safe RTS techniques were developed for traditional applications, but none of them can be directly applied to Web services, even though there have been RT tools and techniques for Web services test-case generation, and ranking competing services. We have developed an approach to adapt Rothermel and Harrold's safe RTS technique to Web services. This approach was designed to be automated. In doing so, we have recognized a set of challenging issues that arise as a result of multiple concurrent modifications in distributed, autonomous, but still interconnected services. We believe not only these issues are common to any automated RTS approach, the needs for the solutions to these issues will also become more and more keen as composite Web services are getting more and more ubiquitous.