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Integrating Mutation Techniques to Keep Specification and Source Code in Sync

Published: 11 September 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Most software development processes rely on testing for assuring that a software's source code is kept in sync with its specification during software evolution. In testing, the degree of conformance between source code and specification is measured by the test success rate. However, the practical value of this metric depends on the quality of the test suite, i.e., its completeness wrt. the specification and source code. Mutation testing has proved to be effective in assessing test suite completeness; however related work either considers mutating the source code or the specification. Our research will investigate how approaches based on mutating code and specification can be integrated to keep both in sync during software evolution. We aim to contribute (1) a concise method to measuring the degree of conformance between specification and code with each modification, (2) a technique for the identification and visualization of fine-granular trace links between them, and (3) an approach for suggesting updates of specification and code based on detected deviations between them.

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cover image ACM Conferences
ISSTA 2024: Proceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis
September 2024
1928 pages
ISBN:9798400706127
DOI:10.1145/3650212
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Published: 11 September 2024

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Author Tags

  1. Mutation
  2. Software Evolution
  3. Software Testing
  4. Traceability

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