arrow
Return

How Effectively Does Metamorphic Testing Alleviate the Oracle Problem?

delete2014-01-01
delete156
delete
OA
AI
H
Huai Liu *
F
Fei‐Ching Kuo
D
Dave Towey
T
Tsong Yueh Chen
DOI:10.1109/TSE.2013.46delete
deleteOriginal
deleteShare
deleteSave
View PDF
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
In software testing, something which can verify the correctness of test case execution results is called an oracle. The oracle problem occurs when either an oracle does not exist, or exists but is too expensive to be used. Metamorphic testing is a testing approach which uses metamorphic relations, properties of the software under test represented in the form of relations among inputs and outputs of multiple executions, to help verify the correctness of a program. This paper presents new empirical evidence to support this approach, which has been used to alleviate the oracle problem in various applications and to enhance several software analysis and testing techniques. It has been observed that identification of a sufficient number of appropriate metamorphic relations for testing, even by inexperienced testers, was possible with a very small amount of training. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness of the approach could be enhanced through the use of more diverse metamorphic relations. The empirical studies presented in this paper clearly show that a small number of diverse metamorphic relations, even those identified in an ad hoc manner, had a similar fault-detection capability to a test oracle, and could thus effectively help alleviate the oracle problem.
Keywords:
Software testing
test oracle
oracle problem
metamorphic testing
metamorphic relation
AI Summary

AI Summary

Key information extracted from the uploaded paper, including a brief overview, abstract, background, key highlights, visual analysis, and future outlook.

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering cover
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
IF:
5.6
Papers:
2.8K
Citations:
1.1W

Organization

U
University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Scholars:
2.9K
Papers: 3.1K
Citations: 0
S
Swinburne University of Technology
Scholars:
9.3K
Papers: 1.2W
Citations: 2.0W