Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers

Mutation testing drives the creation and improvement of test cases by evaluating their ability to identify synthetic faults. Over the past decades, the technique has gained popularity in academic circles. In practice, however, little is known about its adoption and use. While there are some pilot st...

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Autores: Sánchez Jerez, Ana Belén, Parejo Maestre, José Antonio, Segura Rueda, Sergio, Durán Toro, Amador, Papadakis, Mike
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/165700
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/165700
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377378
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mutation testing
Mutation tools
Qualitative study
GitHub
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spelling Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software DevelopersSánchez Jerez, Ana BelénParejo Maestre, José AntonioSegura Rueda, SergioDurán Toro, AmadorPapadakis, MikeMutation testingMutation toolsQualitative studyGitHubMutation testing drives the creation and improvement of test cases by evaluating their ability to identify synthetic faults. Over the past decades, the technique has gained popularity in academic circles. In practice, however, little is known about its adoption and use. While there are some pilot studies applying mutation testing in industry, the overall usage of mutation testing among developers remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, this paper presents the results of a qualitative study among open-source developers on the use of mutation testing. Specifically, we report the results of a survey of 104 contributors to open-source projects using a variety of mutation testing tools. The findings of our study provide helpful insights into the use of mutation testing in practice, including its main benefits and limitations. Overall, we observe a high degree of satisfaction with mutation testing across different programming languages and mutation testing tools. Developers find the technique helpful for improving the quality of test suites, detecting bugs, and improving code maintainability. Popularity, usability, and configurability emerge as key factors for the adoption of mutation tools, whereas performance stands overwhelmingly as their main limitation. These results lay the groundwork for new research contributions and tools that meet the needs of developers and boost the widespread adoption of mutation testing.IEEE Computer SocLenguajes y Sistemas InformáticosVI Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Sevilla 20212024info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/165700https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377378reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevillainstname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)InglésIEEE Transactions on software engineering, 50 (5), 1130-1143.VI PPIT-UShttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10472898info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:idus.us.es:11441/1657002026-06-17T12:51:07Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
title Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
spellingShingle Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
Sánchez Jerez, Ana Belén
Mutation testing
Mutation tools
Qualitative study
GitHub
title_short Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
title_full Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
title_fullStr Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
title_full_unstemmed Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
title_sort Mutation Testing in Practice: Insights from Open-Source Software Developers
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Sánchez Jerez, Ana Belén
Parejo Maestre, José Antonio
Segura Rueda, Sergio
Durán Toro, Amador
Papadakis, Mike
author Sánchez Jerez, Ana Belén
author_facet Sánchez Jerez, Ana Belén
Parejo Maestre, José Antonio
Segura Rueda, Sergio
Durán Toro, Amador
Papadakis, Mike
author_role author
author2 Parejo Maestre, José Antonio
Segura Rueda, Sergio
Durán Toro, Amador
Papadakis, Mike
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos
VI Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Sevilla 2021
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Mutation testing
Mutation tools
Qualitative study
GitHub
topic Mutation testing
Mutation tools
Qualitative study
GitHub
description Mutation testing drives the creation and improvement of test cases by evaluating their ability to identify synthetic faults. Over the past decades, the technique has gained popularity in academic circles. In practice, however, little is known about its adoption and use. While there are some pilot studies applying mutation testing in industry, the overall usage of mutation testing among developers remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, this paper presents the results of a qualitative study among open-source developers on the use of mutation testing. Specifically, we report the results of a survey of 104 contributors to open-source projects using a variety of mutation testing tools. The findings of our study provide helpful insights into the use of mutation testing in practice, including its main benefits and limitations. Overall, we observe a high degree of satisfaction with mutation testing across different programming languages and mutation testing tools. Developers find the technique helpful for improving the quality of test suites, detecting bugs, and improving code maintainability. Popularity, usability, and configurability emerge as key factors for the adoption of mutation tools, whereas performance stands overwhelmingly as their main limitation. These results lay the groundwork for new research contributions and tools that meet the needs of developers and boost the widespread adoption of mutation testing.
publishDate 2024
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2024
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/11441/165700
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377378
url https://hdl.handle.net/11441/165700
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377378
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv IEEE Transactions on software engineering, 50 (5), 1130-1143.
VI PPIT-US
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10472898
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv IEEE Computer Soc
publisher.none.fl_str_mv IEEE Computer Soc
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
instname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
instname_str Universidad de Sevilla (US)
reponame_str idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
collection idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
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