Limit Use of Combinatorial Data to Avoid Test Case Explosion

A frequent temptation for modelers is to use extensively combinatorial data settings without understanding its impact of that on test generation (see also separate Conformiq Guide “Combinatorial Testing with Conformiq Creator” References) . Contrary to other pure test data generating tools all settings of combinatorial data coverage are independent, i.e., not linked to each other. A common misunderstanding is that a “Data Coverage” setting in one action and “Data Coverage” in another action mean that the alternatives values in both actions will be combined – instead it produces the product of two independent combinations, i.e., test case explosion.

Exploratory “Data Coverage” options are not meant for general use but to help reaching coverage of all combinations in very specific modeling situations. In general, exploratory options multiply the number of tests generated by the number of combinations that can be generated from the input constraint.