Table 2. Error calculation of mutant "m3".
Output Original m3 Error
000 0 125 125
001 0 124 124
010 0 101 101
011 0 136 136
100 1000 103 897
101 0 142 142
110 0 131 131
111 0 138 138
1794
5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORK
This paper addresses software mutation as a
technique for improving the quality of test suites. This
technique has proven to be a powerful and effective
tool, which is why we propose to update and reinvent
it for its application to quantum software testing.
Thus, a process is proposed that contemplates (i) the
testing of the circuit under test (or CUT), and (ii) the
generation and execution of quantum mutants from
the CUT by applying a family of specific mutation
operators for quantum software.
Along with this process, we present QuMu, a
prototype that supports this process and by which to
carry out the generation, execution and evaluation of
quantum mutants generated from a CUT, thus
detecting opportunities for improvement in quantum
test suites, and contributing to the improvement of the
quality of quantum software.
As for future work, we present several lines
related to: (i) the identification of equivalent mutants,
(ii) the study of the usefulness or not of certain
mutation operators, (iii) identification of new
mutation operators based on the typical errors of
quantum software development, (iv) evaluation of the
real applicability of the mutation, because although
the initial results are promising, it is necessary to
perform validations according to the types of circuit,
thus being able to identify contexts where the
mutation has a greater or lesser applicability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work has been partially funded by Q-SERV-
Q&T (Quantum Services Engineering: Quality and
Testing of Quantum Software, PID2021-124054OB-
C32) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry
and Competitiveness and FEDER funds, QU-ASAP
(Quantum Software Modernization Prototype,
PDC2022-133051-I00) of the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation and NextGenerationEU
funds, and UNION (2022-GRIN-34110), financial
support for the execution of applied research projects
within the framework of the UCLM Research Plan,
85% of which is co-financed by the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
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