Lockheed Martin has estimated the usage of National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s software testing tool for product development programs could help reduce costs for test planning and design by up to 20 percent.
NIST said Wednesday the company conducted a two-year study of the Advanced Combinatorial Testing System as part of a cooperative research and development agreement with the agency.
Lockheed used ACTS in eight pilot development projects and reported the potential cost savings and increase in test coverage by up to 50 percent, the agency added.
ACTS uses the combinatorial testing approach, which looks at interactions between two- to six-way combinations of variables.
“Our experience showed that the combinatorial testing technique is maturing,” said Thomas Wissink, director of integration, test and evaluation at Lockheed.
“We are continuing to use combinatorial testing at Lockheed Martin and are planning to extend its use through the company.”