PS2Way: An efficient pairwise search approach for test data generation

Abstract

Testing is a very important task to build error free software. Usually, the resources and time to market a software product is limited, hence, it is impossible to perform exhaustive test i.e., to test all combinations of input data. Pairwise (2way) test data generation approach supports higher reduction of exhaustive numbers as well as low cost and effective. In pairwise approach, most of the software faults are caused by unusual combination of input data. Hence, optimization in terms of number of generated test-cases and execution time is in demand. This paper proposes an enhanced pairwise search approach (PS2Way) of input values for optimum test data generation. This approach searches the most coverable pairs by pairing parameters and adopts one-test-at-a-time strategy to construct final test suites. PS2Way is effective in terms of number of generated test cases and execution time compared to other existing strategies. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.