6.6.3 Testing—Let Me Count the Ways: Taguchi versus Combinatorial Design

Testers face the challenge of doing as much testing as possible within the available, and usually constrained, schedule. It is not practical to exhaustively test all combinations of system test cases. There are methods that generate a small subset of test cases that provide good coverage of the test domain. This paper discusses the author's experience with two such methods—Taguchi (orthogonal array) techniques and the Combinatorial Design Method (CDM). The CDM has proven to be more flexible for system level testing of commercial satellite ground systems.