Change-Aware Test Suite Prioritization for CPS using Multi-Domain Dependency Graphs

Cyber-Physical Systems integrate mechanical, electrical, and software components, resulting in tightly coupled development processes and extensive regression-testing demands. As agile and over-the-air update strategies increase the number of system versions, executing full regression test suites becomes infeasible due to resource and time constraints. Existing test case prioritization techniques, developed largely within the software domain, do not account for cross-domain dependencies and therefore overlook faults that arise only through interactions between heterogeneous engineering artifacts. This work presents a change-aware, cross-domain test case prioritization method that builds on Multi-Domain Dependency Graphs (MDDGs) as a unified representation of CPS. By propagating modifications via graph-based relations across all engineering domains, change impact is estimated and used to derive execution orders that reflect the system’s structural and semantic dependencies. The approach is instantiated via a set of graph-based metrics that score test cases along paths connecting changed artifacts and test-relevant elements. A modular implementation with interfaces to existing engineering tools enables integration into modelbased development environments without requiring changes to underlying domain-specific models. ... mehrThe method is evaluated in representative scenarios from an embedded vehicle platform. Across different datasets, the approach achieves Average Percentage of Faults Detected (APFD) values between 60% and 90%, exceeding the 50% expected from random test ordering, indicating improved fault detection relative to random test execution while preserving the full test suite and thus avoiding coverage losses associated with minimization techniques.