Consider a TAS associated to dynamically changing software frequent releases. Your goal is to determine the amount of effort required to maintain the automated tests of the regression test suite for…

Question

Options

• AThe code coverage achieved with the automated tests, for each new release of the SUT
• BThe number of automated tests which fail because of a single software defect, for each new
• CThe time it takes to execute all the automated tests, for each new release of the SUT.
• DThe number of automated tests requiring maintenance, for each new release of the SUT.

• A
  4% (2)
• B
  80% (44)
• C
  11% (6)
• D
  5% (3)

Explanation

Option B is correct because when a single software defect causes many automated tests to fail, it signals poor test isolation and high coupling within the test suite - meaning each new release generates a disproportionate, cascading maintenance burden. This ratio of "failures per defect" is the key driver of maintenance effort: a test suite where one bug breaks 50 tests requires far more triage, analysis, and rework per release than one where a bug breaks 2 tests. Option A (code coverage) measures how thoroughly the SUT is tested, not how costly it is to maintain the tests themselves. Option C (execution time) indicates test suite performance, which is an efficiency concern unrelated to maintenance effort. Option D is tempting but is a lagging count of symptoms - it tells you how much maintenance happened after the fact, whereas B exposes the structural root cause that drives that maintenance load.

Memory tip: Think "1 bug → many broken tests = many hours of work." B measures the multiplier - and wherever you find a high multiplier, you find high maintenance cost.

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