Exploration and Exploitation Mechanism in Pairwise Test Case Generation: A Systematic Literature Review

Software systems are essential in modern life and require rigorous testing to ensure reliability. Pairwise testing, a combinatorial testing methodology, optimizes test case generation by minimizing redundancy while maintaining defect detection effectiveness. This review systematically examines the role of metaheuristic algorithms in pairwise test case generation, focusing on their exploration and exploitation mechanisms to address local optima challenges. Covering research from 2014 to 2024, the review evaluates hybrid and metaheuristic strategies, including Pairwise Migrating Birds Optimization-Based Strategies (PMBOS), Pairwise Gravitational Search Algorithm Strategy (PGSAS), Pairwise hybrid Artificial Bee Colony (PhABC), Genetic and Particle Swarm Optimization (GAPSO) algorithm, Hybrid Optimization Algorithm (HOA), and Parameter Free Choice Function based Hyper-Heuristic (PCFHH), among others. These methods consistently outperform traditional techniques by reducing test suite sizes and enhancing fault detection capabilities. The findings underscore the growing adoption of the one-test-at-a-time (OTAT) approach over the one-parameter-at-a-time (OPAT) approach and identify key challenges in scalability, hyperparameter tuning, and constraint handling, highlighting the need for hybrid strategies and adaptive optimization techniques. This review offers valuable insights into advancing Software testing methodologies and presents recommendations for future research to improve efficiency, scalability, and fault detection in pairwise testing. © 2013 IEEE.