Rabi'a Brown
Wordsmith, Ministry of Testing
At Ministry of Testing, I review article submissions and help our writers present their ideas in the clearest way possible.
Qué aprovechéis y disfrutéis lo que ofrecemos en Ministry of Testing!
Achievements
Contributions
"Generative AI is simply too new for us to have ... trustworthy scientific data on its impact on cognition, learning, memory, problem-solving or creativity."
When you do combinatorial testing, you ensure that the input or configuration parameters of the system under test can accept, without error, a meaningful subset of combinations of values possible for those parameters. If the app you're testing has more than one input or configuration parameter, you should include some combinatorial testing as part of your strategy. This is because research has shown that most failures result from the combination of specific values for one or two input or configuration parameters. The frequency of errors tends to decrease with value combinations from more than two parameters at once, but running those tests can be fruitful as well. Pairwise testing is a subset of combinatorial testing. It sounds out every possible PAIR of values. But pairwise testing does not always cover enough combinations of three, four, or more values. That's where more advanced combinatorial testing techniques come in. According to recent research, simply by ensuring that all possible three-way combinations of values for your parameters are covered, you'll catch 90 percent or more of the defects that could result from all possible combinations. This does NOT mean that you have to cover every single possible combination in your test plan! The set you need is small and manageable compared to all possible combinations. You may not have a full set of expected results for all of your combinations of values. The research suggests that in these cases, simply monitoring for system failures may be enough.
A screengrab of an online webinar space. There is a grid of profile pictures and a chat box on the right hand side.
Boost your career in software testing with the MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate. Learn essential skills, from basic testing techniques to advanced risk analysis, crafted by industry experts.
Discover the history of system failures, from the Blue Screen of Death to rare Linux exploits
EditorBoss shares her review process when selecting articles for the Ministry of Testing site