TAIC PART 2007 and Mutation 2007 special issue editorial

1 IntroductionSoftware testing is a topic of growing importance because of the central role itplays in so many aspects of software engineering, both pre– and post– delivery.There is strong empirical evidence [1,2] that deficient testing ofboth functionaland non-functional properties is one of the major sources of software andsystem errors. In 2002, NIST estimated the cost of software failure to theUS economy at $60,000,000,000; an astonishing 0.6% of GDP [3]. The samereport found that more than one third of these costs of software failure couldbe eliminated by an improved testing infrastructure. As these data reveal, theimportance of work on software testing and its potential impact on the globaleconomy is hard to overstate.TAIC PART 2007 was a unique software testing event that combined as-pects of a conference, a workshop and a retreat. Through this unique blendof attributes the event brought together industrialists and academics in anenvironment that sought to promote meaningful collaboration on problems insoftware testing.