New visions on metamorphic testing after a quarter of a century of inception

Abstract

Metamorphic testing (MT) was introduced about a quarter of a century ago. It is increasingly being accepted by researchers and the industry as a useful testing technique. The studies, research results, applications, and extensions of MT have given us many insights and visions for its future. Our visions include: MRs will be a practical means to top up test case generation techniques, beyond the alleviation of the test oracle problem; MT will not only be a standalone technique, but conveniently integrated with other methods; MT and MRs will evolve beyond software testing, or even beyond verification; MRs may be anything that you can imagine, beyond the necessary properties of algorithms; MT research will be beyond empirical studies and move toward a theoretical foundation; MT will not only bring new concepts to software testing but also new concepts to other disciplines; MRs will alleviate the reliable test set problem beyond traditional approaches. These visions may help researchers explore the challenges and opportunities for MT in the next decade.