Mutation at System and Functional Levels

Mutation analysis has been applied to many testing problems, including functional programs in numerous languages, specifications, network protocols, web services, and security policies. Program mutation, where mutation analysis is applied to programs, has been applied to the unit level (functions and methods), integration of pairs of functions, and individual classes. However, program mutation has not been applied to the problem of testing multiple classes or entire software programs, that is, there is no system level mutation. This paper introduces a project on the problem of multi-class and system level mutation testing. The technical differences between using mutation to test single classes and multiple classes are explored, and new system level mutation operators are defined. A new execution style for detecting killed mutants, Flexible Weak Mutation, is introduced. A support tool, Bacterio, is currently under construction.