Metamorphic testing and beyond

Abstract

When testing a program, correctly executed test cases are seldom explored further, even though they may carry useful information. Metamorphic testing proposes to generate follow-up test cases to check important properties of the target function. It does not need a human oracle for output prediction and comparison. In this paper, we highlight the basic concepts of metamorphic testing and some interesting extensions in the areas of program testing, proving, and debugging. Future research directions are also proposed.