Patent ID: 7574681

Claim:
A method for evaluating tests of a computer program by mutation analysis, the method, executed on a computing system, comprising: determining a set of mutations to be inserted into the by a computer; selecting, from a plurality of tests, a group of relevant tests for each mutation of the set of mutations; determining a ranking system in which the mutations are ranked in an order according to at least a first simplicity criterion applied to the selected groups of relevant tests; in the ranking order of the mutations, executing, for each mutation, a corresponding mutated computer program with the corresponding group of relevant tests, the corresponding mutated computer program corresponding to the computer program in which the mutation has been inserted; comparing, for each mutation and for each corresponding relevant test, a result of the execution of the mutated computer program to a result of the execution of the computer program that has not been mutated; and identifying the mutated computer program if the mutated computer program provides, when executed with a corresponding relevant test, a result identical to a result produced by the computer program that has not been mutated, when executed with the same test.