MDroid+: A Mutation Testing Framework for Android

TL;DR

MDroid+ is an automated mutation testing framework specifically designed for Android apps, incorporating 38 operators based on empirical fault types to evaluate and improve mobile testing effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces MDroid+, a novel mutation testing framework with 38 Android-specific operators, tailored for mobile app testing and fault detection.

Findings

Generated over 8,000 mutants across 50+ apps

Includes 38 mutation operators from 10 fault types

Enhances mobile app testing effectiveness

Abstract

Mutation testing has shown great promise in assessing the effectiveness of test suites while exhibiting additional applications to test-case generation, selection, and prioritization. Traditional mutation testing typically utilizes a set of simple language specific source code transformations, called operators, to introduce faults. However, empirical studies have shown that for mutation testing to be most effective, these simple operators must be augmented with operators specific to the domain of the software under test. One challenging software domain for the application of mutation testing is that of mobile apps. While mobile devices and accompanying apps have become a mainstay of modern computing, the frameworks and patterns utilized in their development make testing and verification particularly difficult. As a step toward helping to measure and ensure the effectiveness of mobile testing practices, we introduce MDroid+, an automated framework for mutation testing of Android apps. MDroid+ includes 38 mutation operators from ten empirically derived types of Android faults and has been applied to generate over 8,000 mutants for more than 50 apps.