A Method of Software Specification Mutation Testing Based on UML State Diagram for Consistency Checking

Specification mutation testing can be used to check the correctness and consistency of the specification and the program. The paper proposed a method of specification mutation testing based on UML state diagram for consistency checking. We define a set of mutation operators based on the mutation location. Each operator is examined whether it would generate unreasonable mutant, in order to reduce the number of mutants. Then, the required condition of generating test case for the mutant is also analyzed. Based on the basis, there is an integration of the operators according to the inclusion relation among them, which can reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of the mutation testing. The experiment shows that our method of specification mutation testing is effective to detect the inconsistency in the specification and the program.