A systematic review of methods for deriving metamorphic relations

Metamorphic testing is one of the most effective methods of testing programs with the test oracle problem. This problem declares that it is impossible to know whether the test answer is correct for one reason or another. Metamorphic testing uses metamorphic relations to check the program correctness. Metamorphic relation is a function of several test inputs and corresponding outputs of the program. Developing metamorphic relations can be a non-trivial task. This systematic review is dedicated to identifying general derivation techniques for metamorphic relation as well as techniques pertinent to particular domains. As a result, we propose a classification of techniques into six main types and compile a comparative table of input data transformations for testing tasks in different domains. Findings of this review will help researchers to apply metamorphic testing in practice.