Test case prioritization methods: A systematic literature review

Software testing is a process that assists in achieving software quality. However, software testing used to be a repetitive activity that takes a long time to be performed. Several methods for test case prioritization have been created with the purpose to reduce the time of software testing activity without compromising its quality. The main idea of this review is to examine and classify test case prioritization methods based on the research questions created. In order to achieve the outlined objective, seventy-one primary studies that propose, analyze, or compare test case prioritization methods were used as a basis for the analysis. Sixty-eight of them were found by search string and four studies were manually included by the author. The main methods of each group were mapped, analyzed and described. Despite the existence of many methods for prioritizing test cases, none of them were designed especially to be applied in agile environments, therefore there are opportunities for improvement in this topic.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development
Published
2025-06-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5753/jserd.2025.4504
Primary Topic
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
Type
article
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article

Test case prioritization methods: A systematic literature review

Luiz Eduardo Galvão Martins, Ícaro Prado Fernandes
Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
article

Test case prioritization methods: A systematic literature review

Luiz Eduardo Galvão Martins, Ícaro Prado Fernandes
article en

Abstract

Software testing is a process that assists in achieving software quality. However, software testing used to be a repetitive activity that takes a long time to be performed. Several methods for test case prioritization have been created with the purpose to reduce the time of software testing activity without compromising its quality. The main idea of this review is to examine and classify test case prioritization methods based on the research questions created. In order to achieve the outlined objective, seventy-one primary studies that propose, analyze, or compare test case prioritization methods were used as a basis for the analysis. Sixty-eight of them were found by search string and four studies were manually included by the author. The main methods of each group were mapped, analyzed and described. Despite the existence of many methods for prioritizing test cases, none of them were designed especially to be applied in agile environments, therefore there are opportunities for improvement in this topic.

Journal of Software Engineering Research and DevelopmentVol. 13(2)
Universidade Federal de São Paulo (BR)
Openalex Percentile: Top 82%
Software Testing and Debugging Techniques
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Test case prioritization methods: A systematic literature review — Luiz Eduardo Galvão Martins, Ícaro Prado Fernandes · Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS