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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vincenzi, Auri M. R., Kuroishi, Pedro H., Bispo, João C. M., da Veiga, Ana R. C., da Mata, David R. C., Azevedo, Francisco B., Paiva, Ana C. R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02875
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author Vincenzi, Auri M. R.
Kuroishi, Pedro H.
Bispo, João C. M.
da Veiga, Ana R. C.
da Mata, David R. C.
Azevedo, Francisco B.
Paiva, Ana C. R.
author_facet Vincenzi, Auri M. R.
Kuroishi, Pedro H.
Bispo, João C. M.
da Veiga, Ana R. C.
da Mata, David R. C.
Azevedo, Francisco B.
Paiva, Ana C. R.
contents Mutation testing may be used to guide test case generation and as a technique to assess the quality of test suites. Despite being used frequently, mutation testing is not so commonly applied in the mobile world. One critical challenge in mutation testing is dealing with its computational cost. Generating mutants, running test cases over each mutant, and analyzing the results may require significant time and resources. This research aims to contribute to reducing Android mutation testing costs. It implements mutation testing operators (traditional and Android-specific) according to mutant schemata (implementing multiple mutants into a single code file). It also describes an Android mutation testing framework developed to execute test cases and determine mutation scores. Additional mutation operators can be implemented in JavaScript and easily integrated into the framework. The overall approach is validated through case studies showing that mutant schemata have advantages over the traditional mutation strategy (one file per mutant). The results show mutant schemata overcome traditional mutation in all evaluated aspects with no additional cost: it takes 8.50% less time for mutant generation, requires 99.78% less disk space, and runs, on average, 6.45% faster than traditional mutation. Moreover, considering sustainability metrics, mutant schemata have 8,18% less carbon footprint than traditional strategy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_02875
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle METFORD -- Mutation tEsTing Framework fOR anDroid
Vincenzi, Auri M. R.
Kuroishi, Pedro H.
Bispo, João C. M.
da Veiga, Ana R. C.
da Mata, David R. C.
Azevedo, Francisco B.
Paiva, Ana C. R.
Software Engineering
Mutation testing may be used to guide test case generation and as a technique to assess the quality of test suites. Despite being used frequently, mutation testing is not so commonly applied in the mobile world. One critical challenge in mutation testing is dealing with its computational cost. Generating mutants, running test cases over each mutant, and analyzing the results may require significant time and resources. This research aims to contribute to reducing Android mutation testing costs. It implements mutation testing operators (traditional and Android-specific) according to mutant schemata (implementing multiple mutants into a single code file). It also describes an Android mutation testing framework developed to execute test cases and determine mutation scores. Additional mutation operators can be implemented in JavaScript and easily integrated into the framework. The overall approach is validated through case studies showing that mutant schemata have advantages over the traditional mutation strategy (one file per mutant). The results show mutant schemata overcome traditional mutation in all evaluated aspects with no additional cost: it takes 8.50% less time for mutant generation, requires 99.78% less disk space, and runs, on average, 6.45% faster than traditional mutation. Moreover, considering sustainability metrics, mutant schemata have 8,18% less carbon footprint than traditional strategy.
title METFORD -- Mutation tEsTing Framework fOR anDroid
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02875