A Greedy-Based Method for Modified Condition/Decision Coverage Testing Criterion

Abstract

During software regression testing, the code coverage of target program is a crucial factor while we perform test case reduction and prioritization. Modified Condition/ Decision Coverage (MC/DC) is one of the most strict and high-accuracy criterion in code coverage and it is usually considered necessary for adequate testing of critical software. In the past, Hayhurst et al proposed a method to implement the MC/DC criterion that complies with regulatory guidance for DO-178B level A software. Hayhurst's MC/DC approach was to find some test cases which are satisfied by MC/DC criterion for each operator (and, or, not, or xor) in the Boolean expression. However, there could be some problems when using Hayhurst's MC/DC approach to select test cases. In this paper, we discuss how to improve and/or enhance Hayhurst's MC/DC approach by using a greedy-based method. Some experiments are performed based on real programs to evaluate as well as compare the performance of our proposed and Hayhurst's approaches.