Foundations of Software Testing: Fundamental Algorithms and Techniques

Test-Adequacy Assessment Using Program Mutation

what simple mistakes might a programmer make, a scientific approach

is to base the design on empirical data. Such empirical data consolidates

the common programming mistakes. In fact mutation operators for a

variety of programming languages have been designed based on a mix

of empirical evidence and collective programming experience of the

design team.

7.5 DESIGN OF MUTATION OPERATORS

7.5.1 GOODNESS CRITERIA FOR MUTATION OPERATORS

Mutation is a tool to assess the goodness of a test set for a given program.

It does so with the help of a set of mutation operators that mutate the

program under test into an often large number of mutants. Suppose that

a test set T

P

for program P is adequate with respect to a set ...