Applying mutation testing for assessing test suites quality at model level

Models are commonly used in software testing to select test suites. Application of mutation testing at a model level can contribute to reliable and early assessment of the quality of the test suites. It can also support selection of test suites achieving high fault detection rates. The main issue related to using mutation testing at the early development stage is to determine how reliably the quality of test suites can be measured at the model level. The research presented in this paper addresses this problem for object-oriented systems. It focuses on describing an experiment aiming at comparing results of applying mutation testing at a model level with results of applying this technique at an implementation level and presents and discusses the outcomes of the experiment. The paper presents also mutation operators applicable at the model level.