MT - 44 - Error Seeding or Bee-bugging ?

Bee-bugging or error seeding is a process of intentionally adding errors to the code to evaluate the amount of residual errors during the phase of testing. In Simple language we can say that we can estimate the total error found in the application to that of the error seeded in the code. This may be used to map the testcases and the level of testcases designed. Additionally we can check that the behaviour of application after introducing errors. IN error-seeding technique a certain number of errors are sown in code while in mutation testing a change in the statement is done (Refer blog 26 for mutation testing).

Here are few differences between them

Error Seeding	Mutation Testing
No mutants are present here.	Mutants are developed for testing.
Here source code is tested within itself.	Here mutants are combined, compared for testing to find error introduced.
Errors are introduced directly.	Special techniques are used to introduce errors.
Test cases which detect errors are used for testing.	Here, test cases which kill mutants are used for testing.
It is less efficient error testing technique.	It is more efficient than error seeding	.
It requires less time.	It is more time consuming.
It is economical to perform.	It is expensive to perform.
It is better method for bigger problems.	It is a better method for small size programs.