PICT (pairwise testing tool) patterns collection?

Question

We are using the Microsoft PICT tool to generate pairwise test parameter sets. There are some interesting modelling questions with PICT that arise when you try to model more complex cases, such as:
* How can you state that a pair of variables is independent (and should therefore be disregarded for pair generation)?
* How do you handle cases where one value in one parameter enables / disables another parameter?
* What can you do when you have a manually optimized set of parameters and values (i.e. the generated test cases for them) and you want to extend this with additional orthogonal variables (standard pairwise)?
* ... many more
For some we have developed 'patterns' (mostly constraints) on how to deal with these situations, for others we don't know.

Is there someone who has collected these kinds of 'usage patterns for PICT'? Is there a forum (sub-forum) for this?
Thanks
Juergen Heymann

Answer 1

Juergen,

To my knowledge there isn't a place that gathers PICT patterns in one place but that's a good idea. Do you want to create a place for these? :)
Wherever already known, I can contribute potential solutions to questions you and the rest of the community might have. Let's brainstorm the rest.

Thanks,
--Jacek

Answer 2

Hi Jacek
Thanks for the reply. I think it would be good to have a space like a Wiki where people could drop patterns, and maybe questions as well.
I don't think I would be the right one to host it since the tool is yours (Microsoft). Can you provide a place for that?

One the specific modelling questions: My currently most pressing one is how to express two variables to be independent. Consider this model:
a: 1,2,3
b: 1,2,3
c: 1,2,3
d: 1,2,3

Now I want to express that a and b are actually independent from each other so (a,b) should not be paired but all other combinations (ac, ad, bc, bd, cd) must be generated. We tried a submodel statement

{a,b} @ 1

but this led to additional pairs not being generated (it works as expected for 3 vars, but not for > 3 vars). I seem to not understand submodels ... What is the right way to do this?

Thanks
Juergen

Answer 3

How about on teting.stackexchange.com - you could mark it as community wiki and you should be able to save the patterns there.