System level mutation analysis applied to a state-based language

One of the great challenges within software testing is to know if a test suite covers a program sufficiently. Mutation analysis is presented as an approach to address that challenge. Faulty versions, or mutants, are created, and whether the test suite is able to discover the defects is investigated. The technique is mostly applied to the unit level testing of software programs. Mutation analysis is applied to integration and system level testing in addition to unit level testing. A state based specification and description language, SDL, is used. The specific structural information is used to employ mutation analysis at different abstraction levels.