Mutation Testing for Java Based on Model-Driven Development

Abstract

This article presents an implementation, based on model-driven development, that supports mutation testing techniques for the evaluation of test cases. The mutation of the code is carried out through a process of model transformations that starts with a transformation of a JAVA program to a representation of it in XMI, which satisfies the requirements of the JAVA metamodel. Later, mutation rules are applied to the model by means of a transformation, model by model, to generate a mutated version of the original program. Finally, JAVA code mutated again through a transformation, model to text, defined with MOF2Text. This last version is the one used to experiment with the different test cases. The main contribution of this work is the proposal of a mutation mechanism of JAVA programs that makes use of existing standards and tools in the context of model-driven development.