A Model to Estimate First-Order Mutation Coverage from Higher-Order Mutation Coverage

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model that estimates first-order mutation coverage from higher-order mutation coverage, reducing computational costs and validated through an empirical study on open-source projects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model that accurately predicts first-order mutation coverage using higher-order mutation data, enabling more efficient test suite evaluation.

Findings

Estimation accuracy improves with higher mutation order

Model validated on 17 open-source projects

Reduces computational effort for mutation testing

Abstract

The test suite is essential for fault detection during software development. First-order mutation coverage is an accurate metric to quantify the quality of the test suite. However, it is computationally expensive. Hence, the adoption of this metric is limited. In this study, we address this issue by proposing a realistic model able to estimate first-order mutation coverage using only higher-order mutation coverage. Our study shows how the estimation evolves along with the order of mutation. We validate the model with an empirical study based on 17 open-source projects.