Investigations of the software testing coupling effect

TLDR

Fault‑based testing strategies focus on specific, common fault types, and the coupling effect posits that tests detecting simple faults can also detect more complex faults. This paper investigates the coupling effect over a specific class of software faults. The authors conduct empirical investigations into the coupling effect in that fault class. All results support the validity of the coupling effect, concluding that testing for simple faults also implicitly tests for more complicated faults, confirming fault‑based testing effectiveness.

Abstract

Fault-based testing strategies test software by focusing on specific, common types of faults. The coupling effect hypothesizes that test data sets that detect simple types of faults are sensitive enough to detect more complex types of faults. This paper describes empirical investigations into the coupling effect over a specific class of software faults. All of the results from this investigation support the validity of the coupling effect. The major conclusion from this investigation is the fact that by explicitly testing for simple faults, we are also implicitly testing for more complicated faults, giving us confidence that fault-based testing is an effective way to test software.