Software Testing, 4th Edition

Chapter 7

Decision Table–Based Testing

Of all the functional testing methods, those based on decision tables are the most rigorous because of their strong logical basis. Two closely related methods are used: cause-and-effect graphing (Elmendorf, 1973; Myers, 1979) and the decision tableau method (Mosley, 1993). These are more cumbersome to use and are fully redundant with decision tables; both are covered in Mosley (1993). For the curious, or for the sake of completeness, Section 7.5 offers a short discussion of cause-and-effect graphing.

7.1 Decision Tables

Decision tables have been used to represent and analyze complex logical relationships since the early 1960s. They are ideal for describing situations in which a number of combinations of ...