Testing with Large Parameter Sets for the Development of Embedded Systems in the Automation Domain

Testing of current devices in the automation domain cannot be done mathematically exhaustive due to the huge number of possible test cases and, even more important, the tremendous amount of time for the execution of all test cases.Thus, a dramatic reduction is needed in the testing domain.This paper discusses two possibilities for the reduction of test case execution time by reducing the number of rdquoparameter setrdquo permutations, recursive backtracking and pairwise testing.Testing of devices in the automation domain is based on their behavior (black box testing) and the parameters of the devices,which influence the behavior.The combination of a parameter model including constraints between parameters, recursive backtracking and pairwise testing can result in the reduction of the parameter permutation space by more than 99%. This paper presents the current status of this reduction and proposes a future direction towards a structured reduction of test cases based on the reduction of the rdquoparameter setrdquo permutations.