Systems and features with some sort of variation

Systems in general, including software and hardware, usually have some input parameters that will affect the output(s) produced by the system. The number of parameters and the possible values, their ranges, vary and can be limited, huge but finite, or even infinite.A system generates different results/outputs not only due to changes in the obvious input parameters but also due to using the system in different contexts (e.g., configurations, operating system, time zones, cloud provider). Those types of variation ideas should also be accounted for in your testing.

Taking a simple flight booking site as an example, we can easily have thousands of combinations for Flying From, Flying to, Class, (number of) Adults, (number of) Children input parameters.

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This potentially leads to a high number of scenarios to be tested - for the example model above, with  with a limited number of possible values, that would still lead to 3*3*3*2*3=162 scenarios.

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Initial testing options

Option 1: Test using “familiar” selection of values for the parameters

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