Testing software is an active field of endeavor. Developer Distaste A development team with a substantial bug backlog does not find it helpful to have an automatic bug finder continually increasing the backlog. The team priority is to address customer complaints before dealing with bugs detected by a robot. Engineers argue that the randomly produced tests do not uncover errors that are likely to bother customers. The complaints have a substantial basis.
Some software needs a stronger remedy than a stream of bug reports.
Moreover, a stream of bug reports may consume the energy that could be applied in more general and productive ways. The developer pushback just described indicates that a differential testing effort must be based on a perceived need for better testing from within the product development team. Performing the testing is pointless if the developers cannot or will not use the results. Differential testing is most easily applicable to software whose quality is already under control, that is, software for which there are few known outstanding errors. Running a very large number of tests and expending team effort only when an error is found becomes an attractive alternative.