On the efficiency of a compound Poisson stopping rule for mixed strategy testing

Abstract

When testing software, testers rarely use only one technique to generate tests that, they hope, will fulfill their testing criteria. Malaiya showed that testers switch strategies when testing yield saturates. We present and evaluate a stopping rule that can be used to determine when it is time to switch to a different testing technique, because the current one is not likely to increase criteria fulfilment. We demonstrate use of the stopping rule on a program that is being tested for branch coverage with five different testing techniques. We compare savings and accuracy of stopping both with and without using the stopping rule.