Mutation at the multi-class and system levels

Mutation analysis has been applied to many testing problems, including numerous programming languages, specifications, network protocols, web services, and security policies. Program mutation, where mutation analysis is applied to programs, has been applied to the unit level (functions and methods), integration of pairs of functions, and individual classes. However, program mutation has not been applied to the problem of integration testing of multiple classes or entire software programs; thus, there is no system level mutation. This paper introduces a project on the problem of integration testing of multiple classes (multi-class) and system level mutation testing. The technical differences between using mutation to test single classes and multiple classes are explored, and new system level mutation operators are defined. A new execution style for detecting killed mutants, flexible weak mutation, is introduced. A mutation tool, Bacterio, still under construction, is also described.