Abstract: In this paper, a new idea of conditional fault collapsing in software mutation testing is proposed based on the theory of fault dominance and equivalence long being used in hardware testing. The new technique proposed can be used in software mutation testing and can greatly reduce the number of injected faults in software so as to decrease the number of mutants, shorten the testing time in mutation testing. It is shown that the complexity of software testing can be simplified and the effectiveness of testing is improved directly. Experimental results have justified the technique proposed in the paper.

Key words: fault dominance, fault equivalence, test complexity, software testing