On the effectiveness of test case allocation schemes in partition testing

Abstract

In partition testing, the input domain is divided into two or more disjoint subdomains according to some criteria and then test data are selected from each subdomain. Hence we must design a partitioning scheme that governs how to divide the input domain, and a test case allocation scheme that controls how to allocate test cases to the subdomains. Given any partitioning scheme, the test case allocation scheme plays a crucial part in the effectiveness of testing. This paper develops guidelines for comparing different test case allocation schemes. This provides solutions to the class of problems where various test case allocation schemes under the same partitioning scheme are compared for the effectiveness of testing. We illustrate with examples several potential applications of our findings. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.