On the Testing of Statistical Software

Testing statistical software is an extremely difficult task. What is more, for many statistical packages, the developer and test engineer are one and the same, may not have formal training in software testing techniques, and may have limited time for testing. This makes it imperative that the adopted testing approach is both efficient and effective and, at the same time, it should be based on principles that are readily understood by the developer. As it turns out, the construction of test cases can be thought of as a designed experiment (DOE). This article provides a comprehensive treatment of DOE principles applied to testing statistical software and includes other considerations that may be less familiar to those developing and testing statistical packages.