Pseudo-Exhaustive Testing for Software

Published

April 28, 2006

Author(s)

David R. Kuhn, Vadim Okun

Abstract

Pseudo-exhaustive testing uses the empirical observation that, for broad classes of software, a fault is likely triggered by only a few variables interacting. The method takes advantage of two relatively recent advances in software engineering: algorithms for efficiently generating covering arrays to represent software interaction test suites, and automated generation of test oracles using model checking. An experiment with a module of the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) illustrates the approach testing pairwise through 6-way interactions. We also outline current and future work applying the test methodology to a large real-world application, the personal identity verification (PIV) smart card.

Conference Dates

April 24-28, 2006

Conference Location

Columbia, MD

Conference Title

30th Annual IEEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop (SEW '06)

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/SEW.2006.26

Keywords

automated testing, combinatorial testing, software testing

Citation

Kuhn, D. and Okun, V. (2006), Pseudo-Exhaustive Testing for Software, 30th Annual IEEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop (SEW '06), Columbia, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/SEW.2006.26 (Accessed October 14, 2025)