eprintid: 1508140
rev_number: 28
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/01/50/81/40
datestamp: 2017-05-16 15:55:58
lastmod: 2021-10-10 22:55:21
status_changed: 2017-05-16 15:55:58
type: proceedings_section
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Yao, X
creators_name: Harman, M
creators_name: Jia, Y
title: A Study of Equivalent and Stubborn Mutation Operators using Human Analysis of Equivalence
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C05
divisions: F48
keywords: Mutation Testing, Equivalent Mutant, Stubborn Mutant
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: Though mutation testing has been widely studied for more than thirty years, the prevalence and properties of equivalent mutants remain largely unknown. We report on the causes and prevalence of equivalent mutants and their relationship to stubborn mutants (those that remain undetected by a high quality test suite, yet are non-equivalent). Our results, based on manual analysis of 1,230 mutants from 18 programs, reveal a highly uneven distribution of equivalence and stubbornness. For example, the ABS class and half UOI class generate many equivalent and almost no stubborn mutants, while the LCR class generates many stubborn and few equivalent mutants. We conclude that previous test effectiveness studies based on fault seeding could be skewed, while developers of mutation testing tools should prioritise those operators that we found generate disproportionately many stubborn (and few equivalent) mutants.
date: 2014-05-31
date_type: published
publisher: Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2568225.2568265
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1088367
doi: 10.1145/2568225.2568265
isbn_13: 9781450327565
lyricists_name: Harman, Mark
lyricists_name: Jia, Yue
lyricists_id: MHARM36
lyricists_id: YJIAX90
actors_name: Jia, Yue
actors_id: YJIAX90
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
series: International Conference on Software Engineering
publication: 36TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (ICSE 2014)
volume: 36
place_of_pub: New York, USA
pagerange: 919-930
pages: 12
event_title: ICSE 2014: 36th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), 31 May - 7 June 2014, Hyderabad, India
event_location: Hyderabad, INDIA
event_dates: 31 May 2014 - 07 June 2015
book_title: ICSE 2014: Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering
editors_name: Jalote, P
editors_name: Briand, L
editors_name: Van der Hoek, A
citation:        Yao, X;    Harman, M;    Jia, Y;      (2014)    A Study of Equivalent and Stubborn Mutation Operators using Human Analysis of Equivalence.                     In: Jalote, P and Briand, L and Van der Hoek, A, (eds.) ICSE 2014: Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering.  (pp. pp. 919-930).  Association for Computer Machinery (ACM): New York, USA.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508140/1/icse14-xy.pdf