Quality evaluation of test oracles using mutation

Abstract

In software development, product quality is directly related to the quality of the development process. Therefore, testing activities performed by methods, techniques and tools are urgently required to improve productivity, quality and reduce costs in software development. The mutation test has high efficacy in the detection of defects and is quite flexible in its application and can be used in many different types of artifacts like models or executable programs. On the automation of tests, the oracles are essential. Oracle corresponds to a mechanism(program, process or data) indicating whether the output obtained for the test case is correct. This master's project aims to use the idea of mutation to create alternative implementations of the oracle procedure and thus to assess their quality. Also aims to build a tool for developing new mutation operators for oracles.