The Mothra tool set (software testing)

Abstract

Mothra is a software test environment that supports mutation-based testing of software systems. Mutation analysis is a powerful software testing technique that evaluates the adequacy of test data based on its ability to differentiate between the program under test and its mutants, where mutants are constructed by inserting single, simple errors into the program under test. This evaluation process also provides guidance in the creation of new test cases to provide more adequate testing. Mothra consists of a collection of individual tools, each of which implements a separate, independent function for the testing system. The initial Mothra tool set, for the most part, duplicates functionality existing in previous mutation analysis systems. Current efforts are concentrated on extending this basic tool set to include capabilities previously unavailable to the software testing community. The authors describe Mothra tool set and extensions planned for the future.<>