Genetic Algorithm Based Test Data Generation for Structured Software Testing

Conventional software testing is time consuming and expensive task. The techniques for automated test case generation of software is very important as it can reduce the time and cost of this process. Search based test data generation received lot of attention in last two decades for solving this problem. The well known metaheuristic search technique genetic algorithm is used to obtain a specific coverage in software testing. This technique automatically generates test data in order to obtain branch coverage in software testing. The authors first use a technique to identify the unique paths from a control flow graph and then apply genetic algorithm for test case generation. This paper defines the basic research issues of genetic algorithm like chromosome, fitness function, crossing over, mutation in this problem domain and uses a case study to illustrate it.