Domain Testing: Divide and Conquer - Testing Education

How do I determine what members to categorize into an equivalence class?
To partition the input domain space into sub-domains with equivalence class analysis it is
helpful to use heuristics.
What is a heuristic?
1. Of or relating to a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the
investigation or solution of a problem: “The historian discovers the past by the
judicious use of such a heuristic device as the ‘ideal type’” (Karl J.
Weintraub).
2. Of or constituting an educational method in which learning takes place
through discoveries that result from investigations made by the student.
3. Computer Science. Relating to or using a problem-solving technique in which
the most appropriate solution of several found by alternative methods is
selected at successive stages of a program for use in the next step of the
program.
Heuristics do not always work; else they would be called guidelines.
Some common heuristics for equivalence class analysis is located in Appendix A:
Equivalence Class Analysis Heuristics. Please note that all the examples in the heuristics
presented in Appendix A deal with only one dimension of the concerned variable since the
information presented in the examples gives enough information only along one dimension
for analysis purposes. Examples given during training lectures will describe detailed
analysis of multidimensional variables.
Also note that the risks identified in the examples corresponding to the heuristics
presented below are an incomplete list. Additional risks will be outlined during training
lectures, but the ones listed here are the ones most often considered in domain testing.
© Sowmya Padmanabhan, 2003
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