This HiRSE Seminar Series webinar will introduce metamorphic testing as a practical approach for research software where expected outputs may be uncertain, stochastic, or shaped by complex simulations.
| Event Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Webinar Title | When you don't know what to test for: Metamorphic Testing for Research Software |
| Date and Time | 2026-06-25 11:00 am CEST |
| Presenter | Sebastian Mueller (Universitat Potsdam) |
| Presentation Language | English |
| Request Connection Information | hirse@fz-juelich.de |
| Series Information | https://www.helmholtz-hirse.de/series.html |
| Archives | Recordings (YouTube), Slides (Zenodo) |
This event is part of the HiRSE Seminar Series, a series of online talks on topics relevant to research software engineering and research software engineers.
Abstract
As research software becomes increasingly complex and interdisciplinary, assuring its quality and keeping the software well maintained requires testing approaches that go beyond conventional correctness checking. Traditional unit testing techniques are often insufficient in research software contexts where expected outcomes may be uncertain, stochastic, or influenced by complex simulation contexts. Not being able to predict what the correct output of a program should be for a given input is known in the literature as the oracle problem.
This talk presents practical strategies for tackling the oracle problem within standard automated testing frameworks, such as pyunit. Rather than abandoning unit tests, the focus is on rethinking the assertions they rely on. One complementary approach will be discussed in depth: metamorphic testing. The technique will be illustrated with real-world scientific software examples.
The seminar is aimed at research software engineers and developers of research software with basic knowledge of automated testing who want to strengthen their testing knowledge with practices suited for hard-to-test research software prototypes.
Presenter
- Sebastian Mueller (Universitat Potsdam)
Please check the event website for full details and updates.
