An Extension of Category Partition Testing for Highly Constrained Systems

Abstract

To ensure software is performing as intended it can be black-box or white-box tested. Category partition is a black box, specification based testing technique which begins by identifying the parameters, categories (characteristics of parameters) and choices (acceptable values for categories). These choices are then combined to form test frames on the basis of various criteria such as base choice and each choice. To ensure that the combinations of choices are feasible, constraints are introduced. While combining choices to form an each choice adequate test set it is feasible (e.g., using constrained covering arrays from combinatorial testing), the base choice criterion has not been defined to specifically account for constraints on choices. In this paper, we introduce two extensions of the base choice criterion to specifically account for complex constraints among choices. Adequate test suites of the different criteria are compared in terms of cost and effectiveness (code coverage and fault detection) on an academic and industrial case study.