| A covering array CA ( N ; t , k , v ) is an N×k array such that every N×t sub-array contains all t -tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. One application of these objects is to generate software test suites to cover all t -sets of component interactions. Methods for construction of covering arrays for software testing have focused on two main areas. The first is finding algorithms to find smaller covering arrays more quickly. The second is refining computational search algorithms to find smaller covering arrays more quickly. In this paper, we examine some new cut-paste techniques for strength the base method, this is augmented annealing. This method leverages the computational efficiency and optimality of size obtained through combinatorial constructions while benefiting from the generality of a heuristic search. We present a few examples of specific constructions and provide new bounds for some strength three covering arrays.Component-based software development poses many challenges for the software tester. Interactions among components are often complex and abundant. Components may not be designed with the final product in mind which leaves them prone to unexpected interaction faults. Ideally we want to test all possible interactions, but this is usually infeasible either time-wise or cost-wise. We are, therefore, interested in generating test suite that provide coverage of as many interactions as possible.
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