Graphical methods for evaluating covering arrays

Covering arrays relax the condition of orthogonal arrays by only requiring that all combination of levels be covered but not requiring that the appearance of all combination of levels be balanced. This allows for a much larger number of factors to be simultaneously considered but at the cost of poorer estimation of the factor effects. To better understand patterns between sets of columns and evaluate the degree of coverage to compare and select between alternative arrays, we suggest several new graphical methods that show some of the patterns of coverage for different designs. These graphical methods for evaluating covering arrays are illustrated with some examples.