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As time continues to advance, the need for robust security threat mitigation has become increasingly vital in software. It is a constant struggle to maximize test coverage through optimal data generation. We conducted explanatory research to maximize test coverage of security requirements as modeled in the structured misuse case description (SMCD). The acceptance test case is designed through the structured misuse case description for mitigation of security threats. Mal activity is designed from SMCD upon which constraints are specified in object constraint language (OCL) in order to minimize human dependency and improve consistency in the optimal test case design. The study compared two state-of-the-art test coverage maximization approaches through optimal test data generation. It was evident through the results that MC/DC generated optimal test data, i.e., n + 1 test conditions in comparison to the decision coverage approach, i.e., 2n test conditions for security threats. Thus, MC/DC resulted in a significantly lower number of test cases yet maximized test coverage of security threats. We, therefore, conclude that MC/DC maximizes test coverage through optimal test data in comparison to decision coverage at the design level for security threat mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross project defect prediction (CPDP) is a key method for estimating defect-prone modules of software products. CPDP is a tempting approach since it provides information about predicted defects for those projects in which data are insufficient. Recent studies specifically include instructions on how to pick training data from large datasets using feature selection (FS) process which contributes the most in the end results. The classifier helps classify the picked-up dataset in specified classes in order to predict the defective and non-defective classes. The aim of our research is to select the optimal set of features from multi-class data through a search-based optimizer for CPDP. We used the explanatory research type and quantitative approach for our experimentation. We have F1 measure as our dependent variable while as independent variables we have KNN filter, ANN filter, random forest ensemble (RFE) model, genetic algorithm (GA), and classifiers as manipulative independent variables. Our experiment follows 1 factor 1 treatment (1F1T) for RQ1 whereas for RQ2, RQ3, and RQ4, there are 1 factor 2 treatments (1F2T) design. We first carried out the explanatory data analysis (EDA) to know the nature of our dataset. Then we pre-processed our data by removing and solving the issues identified. During data preprocessing, we analyze that we have multi-class data; therefore, we first rank features and select multiple feature sets using the info gain algorithm to get maximum variation in features for multi-class dataset. To remove noise, we use ANN-filter and get significant results more than 40% to 60% compared to NN filter with base paper (all, ckloc, IG). Then we applied search-based optimizer i.e., random forest ensemble (RFE) to get the best features set for a software prediction model and we get 30% to 50% significant results compared with genetic instance selection (GIS). Then we used a classifier to predict defects for CPDP. We compare the results of the classifier with base paper classifier using F1-measure and we get almost 35% more than base paper. We validate the experiment using Wilcoxon and Cohen's d test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-project defect prediction (CPDP) is a practical approach for finding software defects in projects which have incomplete or fewer data. Improvements to the defect prediction accuracy of CPDP—such as the PROMISE repository, the correct classification of the source data, removing the noise, reducing the distribution gap, and balancing the output classes—are an ongoing challenge, as is the selection of an optimal feature set. This research paper aims to achieve a higher defect prediction accuracy for multi-class CPDP by selecting an optimal feature set through XGBoost combined with an automatic feature extraction using a convolutional neural network (CNN). This research type is explanatory, and this research method is controlled experimentation, for which the independent variable prediction accuracy was dependent upon two variables, XGBoost and CNN. The Softmax layer was added to the output layers of the CNN classifier to classify the output into multiple classes. In our experimentation with CPDP, we selected all 28 versions of the multi-class, in which 11 versions were selected as the source projects, against which we predicted 28 target versions with an average AUC of 75.57%. We validated this research paper's results through the Wilcoxon test. Therefore, after removing the noise, class imbalances, and the data distribution gap, and treating the PROMISE dataset as multi-class, the optimal features selected through XGBoost and classified through the CNN can substantially increase the prediction accuracy in CPDP as evident from our exploratory data analysis (EDA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of cross-project defect prediction (CPDP) is to develop a model that trains bugs on current source projects and predicts defects of target projects. Due to the complexity of projects, CPDP is a challenging task, and the precision estimated is not always trustworthy. Our goal is to predict the bugs in the new projects by training our model on the current projects for cross-projects to save time, cost, and effort. We used experimental research and the type of research is explanatory. Our research method is controlled experimentation, for which our independent variable is prediction accuracy and dependent variables are hyper-parameters which include learning rate, epochs, and dense layers of neural networks. Our research approach is quantitative as the dataset is quantitative. The design of our research is 1F1T (1 factor and 1 treatment). To obtain the results, we first carried out exploratory data analysis (EDA). Using EDA, we found that the dataset is multi-class. The dataset contains 11 different projects consisting of 28 different versions of all the projects in total. We also found that the dataset has significant issues of noise, class imbalance, and distribution gaps between different projects. We pre-processed the dataset for experimentation by resolving all these issues. To resolve the issue of noise, we removed duplication from the dataset by removing redundant rows. We then covered the data distribution gap between different sources and target projects using the min-max normalization technique. After covering the data distribution gap, we generated synthetic data using a CTGANsynthesizer to solve class imbalance issues. We solved the class imbalance issue by generating an equal number of instances, as well as an equal number of output classes. After carrying out all of these steps, we obtained normalized data. We applied the hybrid feature selection technique on the pre-processed data to optimize the feature set. We obtained significant results of an average AUC of 75.98%. From the empirical study, it was demonstrated that feature selection and hyper-parameter tuning have a significant impact on defect prediction accuracy in cross-projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]