Investigation into the effectiveness of white-box T-way testing

Abstract

An unduly large number of test cases are required for effective testing of programmes containing complex decision statements. In this context, modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC) testing has been acknowledged to provide effective testing using a test suite whose size is linear in the number of the clauses present in a predicate. MC/DC testing is well-accepted and is mandated by several testing standards. T-way testing is another prominent testing technique that helps to limit the combinatorial explosion of black-box test cases. Its application to white-box testing promises to provide effective testing with a comparatively small number of test cases. The authors empirically investigate the effectiveness of MC/DC testing vis-à-vis white-box pairwise, 3-way and 4-way testing.