Orthogonal array testing is a
black box testing
Black-box testing is a method of software testing that examines the functionality of an application without peering into its internal structures or workings. This method of test can be applied virtually to every level of software testing: unit, ...
technique that is a systematic,
statistical way of
software testing
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...
.
It is used when the number of inputs to the system is relatively small, but too large to allow for exhaustive testing of every possible input to the
systems.
It is particularly effective in finding errors associated with faulty
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
within
computer software systems.
s can be applied in
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
testing,
system testing,
regression testing
Regression testing (rarely, ''non-regression testing'') is re-running functional and non-functional tests to ensure that previously developed and tested software still performs as expected after a change. If not, that would be called a '' regre ...
,
configuration testing and
performance testing.
The
permutations
In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or pr ...
of factor levels comprising a single treatment are so chosen that their responses are uncorrelated and therefore each treatment gives a unique piece of
information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
. The net effects of organizing the experiment in such treatments is that the same piece of information is gathered in the minimum number of
experiment
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...
s.
Background
Orthogonal vector
Orthogonal vectors exhibit
orthogonality. Orthogonal vectors exhibit the following properties:
* Each of the vectors conveys information different from that of any other vector in the sequence, i.e., each vector conveys unique information therefore avoiding redundancy.
* On a linear addition, the signals may be separated easily.
* Each of the vectors is
statistically independent
Independence is a fundamental notion in probability theory, as in statistics and the theory of stochastic processes. Two events are independent, statistically independent, or stochastically independent if, informally speaking, the occurrence of o ...
of the others, i.e., the correlation between them is nil.
* When linearly added, the resultant is the arithmetic sum of the individual components.
Technique
[ ]
Benefits
* Testing cycle time is reduced and analysis is simpler.
* Test cases are balanced, so it's straightforward to isolate defects and assess performance. This provides a significant cost savings over
pair-wise testing.
References
External links
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{{Software testing
Survival analysis
Design of experiments