Mutation Testing is a powerful method for finding errors in software programs. Mutation testing involves deliberately altering a program’s code, then re-running a suite of valid unit tests against the mutated program. A good unit test will detect the change in the program and fail accordingly. Mutation testing is expensive to run, especially on very large applications. Mutation Testing is complicated and time-consuming to perform without an automated tool.
How Mutation testing is performed?
- Create a mutant software which is different from the original software by one mutation.
- Each of the mutant software has one fault.
- Test cases are applied to the original software and the mutant software.
- Results are evaluated. The test case that is applied is wrong if the mutant software as well as the original software produces the same result. The test case is right if the test case detects fault in the software.
Benefits of Mutation Testing
- Introduces a new level of error detection.
- Uncover errors in code that were previously thought impossible to detect automatically.
- The customer will receive a more reliable and bug free software.
On what factors Mutation testing depends ?
- It depends heavily on the types of faults that the mutation operators are designed to represent.
- Mutation operators means certain aspects of the programming techniques, the slightest change in which may cause the program to function incorrectly.
Mutation Operators and Tools
Some mutation operators for languages like Java, C++ etc. are :
- Changing the access modifiers, like public to private etc.
- Static modifier change.
- Argument order change.
- Super keyword deletion.
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Tools like Jester, Pester, Nester and Insure++ are some of the tools that are available for mutation testing.
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