Pair-Wise Testing: Moving from Theory to Practice

We've all heard the phrase, "You can't test everything." This axiom is particularly appropriate for testing multiple combinations of options, selections, and configurations. To test all combinations in some of these instances would require millions of tests. A systematic way to reduce the number of tests is called pair-wise testing. Gretchen Henrich describes the process of integrating this technique into your test practices and offers her experiences testing multiple releases of a product using pair-wise testing. She discusses her company's migration from a textbook orthogonal array approach, to free "all-pairs" software, and finally to a commercial tool that also creates the test data for pair-wise testing.

• Automatically create test designs and even test data based on all pairs of inputs
• Review the tools available to support pair-wise
• Product testing using data-driven automation methods and tools