Suitability of evolutionary algorithms for evolutionary testing

Abstract

Evolutionary testing is based on the principle of searching for relevant test cases in the input domain of the system under test with the help of evolutionary algorithms. Evolutionary testing enables the complete automation of test case design whenever the test aim can be expressed numerically, e.g. when performing temporal behavior testing, safety testing, or structural testing. Evolutionary tests have already produced very good results in all of these application fields. Due to the full automation of evolutionary testing, the effectiveness and efficiency of the test can clearly be improved. The system could be tested with a large number of different input situations. In most cases, more than several thousand test data sets are generated and executed within a few minutes.