Techniques to reduce a set of test cases
Ljubomir Lazić, Nikos E. Mastorakis · International Conference on Communications · 2006
The primary purpose of Software Testing Process and Evaluation (STP& E) is to reduce risk. All testing provides insight and helps identify unknown-unknowns. This paper describes STP with Assured Confidence techniques. The uncertainty problem is an important issue in the computer industry today and testing is still the main technique for quality assurance. There is a need to ensure that the software is reasonably safe from severe faults after testing. When faced with financial or a schedule constraints, testing is usually cut horizontally attempting to cover as many different test requirements at the expense of depth. We have reached a point where we must test smarter and apply Statistical-Risk-Based Test with Assured Confidence (SRBTAC) management procedure. We need to pick the right assessment tools to make vertical cuts in our test strategies. Any given test has a low probability of detecting a problem, but all the possibilities create a too-high probability of defects. To define the smallest number of tests you need to cover enough tests applying reduction hypotheses such as: uniformity, regularity, induction, deduction, analogy etc. and determine how many combinations you require for enough tests. If you analyze the inputs, there exists a set of combinations that defines the outputs, so you test ONLY those combinations of inputs. Approaches to software testing based on methods from the field of design of experiments have been advocated as a means of providing high coverage with minimal number of test cases at relatively low cost. These techniques can be easily embedded in an existing testing STP with minimal changes and extra effort.