Selection of the appropriate parents to be used in artificial crosses is one of the main decisions faced by plant breeders that will facilitate the exploitation of maximum genetic variability and production of superior recombinant genotypes. Several techniques have been used in aiding the identification of genotypes with promising and desirable agronomical traits for hybridization. In this way, the objective of the present review is to gather available information for the selection of parents based on different breeding designs and analytical tools showing their similarities and highlighting the main advantages and disadvantages of their use.