If the application you’re testing has more than one input field and those fields have more than one possible value apiece, you REALLY should be thinking about “combinatorial testing.” That’s a fancy phrase to describe a testing technique that covers just enough combinations of possible values for bug-finding power like you have probably never seen.
And if you are testing an application or device where safety or security is important, combinatorial testing is not just a nice to have. It’s probably an ethical obligation.
However, we software testers lack a reliable, open-source tool and a community to help establish combinatorial testing as a standard practice. Just like we made Ministry of Testing, let’s build a tool and community!
To find out more, check out my latest MoT article “Software testers unite: Let’s build a great tool and community for combinatorial testing!”
What You’ll Learn:
- What combinatorial testing is
- Why it’s important
- What tools are out there today to do it
- What obstacles lie in the way of the widespread adoption of combinatorial testing
- Why the testing community needs to start doing combinatorial testing as standard practice
After reading, share your thoughts:
- Did you know that there are types of combinatorial testing that are more powerful than pairwise testing?
- Which bugs have you encountered that were the result of a combination of two or more values across parameters?
- Are you doing pairwise testing today? If so, how is it going?