[2603.00183] Test Case Prioritization: A Snowballing Literature Review and TCPFramework with Approach Combinators

Computer Science > Software Engineering arXiv:2603.00183 (cs) [Submitted on 26 Feb 2026] Title:Test Case Prioritization: A Snowballing Literature Review and TCPFramework with Approach Combinators Authors:Tomasz Chojnacki, Lech Madeyski View a PDF of the paper titled Test Case Prioritization: A Snowballing Literature Review and TCPFramework with Approach Combinators, by Tomasz Chojnacki and Lech Madeyski View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Context: Test case prioritization (TCP) is a technique widely used by software development organizations to accelerate regression testing. Objectives: We aim to systematize existing TCP knowledge and to propose and empirically evaluate a new TCP approach. Methods: We conduct a snowballing review (SR) on TCP, implement a~comprehensive platform for TCP research (TCPFramework), analyze existing evaluation metrics and propose two new ones (\rAPFDc{} and ATR), and develop a~family of ensemble TCP methods called approach combinators. Results: The SR helped identify 324 studies related to TCP. The techniques proposed in our study were evaluated on the RTPTorrent dataset, consistently outperforming their base approaches across the majority of subject programs, and achieving performance comparable to the current state of the art for heuristical algorithms (in terms of \rAPFDc{}, NTR, and ATR), while using a distinct approach. Conclusions: The proposed methods can be used efficiently for TCP, reducing the time spent on regression testing by up to...