Methods and systems for monitoring quality assurance

• US 20030191988A1
• Filed: 04/06/2001
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Patton, Gardner C., Rathi, Manish Ramesh, Appenzeller, James Edward, Dalal, Siddhartha Ramanlal, Long, Michael James, Jain, Ashish
• Granted Patent: US 6,754,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for monitoring a loosely coupled system, such as a web-based system and a business-to-business (B2B) system. In the case of a web-based system, exchanges between a web client and a web server may be monitored to determine quality and performance of the web-based system. The exchanges may include objects and attributes communicated from the web server to the web client. The exchanges may also include information about actions performed on objects as a user navigates through web pages displayed by the web client. For example, when the user selects a hyperlink, the monitoring system may recognize the hyperlink as an action. Accordingly, the actions along with the objects and their associated attributes may be recorded. The objects and their associated attributes may then be retrieved from the web server and the recorded actions may be played back against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes. The results of the play back may be compared with the expected results to monitor the quality and performance of the web server. Additional actions may also be generated based on user defined rules and played against the retrieved objects to monitor alternate aspects of the web server.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a system that includes a first process running on a first computer and a second process running on a second computer, said method comprising the steps of:

monitoring communications between the first process and the second process;

detecting objects and attributes associated with the objects based on information communicated from the second process to the first process;

detecting actions performed on the objects based on information communicated from the first process to the second process;

recording the objects, the attributes, and the actions,

retrieving the objects and the attributes from the second process;

playing back the recorded actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify one or more changes in the second process.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional actions based on information provided by a user; and

playing the additional actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify the one or more changes in the second process.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generating step and the recording step are performed on separate computers.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional actions based on heuristically determined information; and

playing the additional actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify the one or more changes in the second process.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating step and the recording step are performed on separate computers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional actions based on information provided by a user; and

playing the additional actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify one or more other changes in the second process.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional sequences of actions based on information provided by a user; and

playing the additional sequences of actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify one or more additional changes in the second process.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining a value of at least one of the recorded attributes associated with one of the recorded objects based on a value of another recorded attribute associated with another one of the recorded objects.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process includes a web browser.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process includes a web server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process includes a business process.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process includes a business process.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process communicates with the second process using a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process communicates with the first process using a HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process communicates with the second process using an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process communicates with the first process using an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process communicates with the second process using a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process communicates with the first process using a Wireless Markup Language (WML).

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a monitor that monitors communications between a first process running on a first computer and a second process running on a second computer, detects objects and attributes associated with the objects based on information communicated from the second process to the first process, and detects actions performed on the objects based on information communicated from the first process to the second process;

a recorder that records the detected objects, attributes, and actions,

a player that retrieves the objects and the associated attributes from the server and plays back the recorded actions against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify one or more changes in the second process.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a cloner that generates additional actions based on information provided by a user such that the additional actions are played by the player against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify the one or more changes in the second process.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a cloner that generates additional actions based on information provided by a user such that the additional actions are played by the player against the retrieved objects based on the recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes to identify one or more other changes in the second process.

22. A method for monitoring a system that includes objects and information about the objects, said method comprising the steps of:

recording one or more actions performed on one or more of the objects;

recording the objects and the information about the objects;

retrieving, from the system, the objects and the information about the objects;

performing the recorded one or more actions on the retrieved objects corresponding to the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed, if the retrieved information about the retrieved objects corresponding to the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed match the recorded information about the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed; and

monitoring the system based on one or more results of the step of performing the recorded one or more actions on the retrieved objects.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

determining one or more changes in the system when the retrieved information about the retrieved objects is different from the recorded information about the recorded objects; and

monitoring the system based on the determined one or more changes.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of determining one or more changes in the system comprises the step of determining the one or more changes based on one or more predetermined rules that are used to compare the retrieved information about the retrieved objects with the recorded information about the recorded objects.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the one or more predetermined rules indicate a method for comparing the retrieved information about the retrieved objects with the recorded information about the recorded objects.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the system includes one or more web sites.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of recording the one or more actions comprises the steps of:

monitoring communications between a first process running on a first computer and a second process running on a second computer;

identifying the one or more actions based on the monitored communications; and

recording the identified one or more actions.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of recording the objects and the information about the objects comprises the step of recording the objects and the information about the objects based on the one or more actions performed by a user on the one or more recorded objects while the system is monitored.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of recording the objects and the information about the objects comprises the steps of:

monitoring communications between a first process running on a first computer and a second process running on a second computer;

identifying in the monitored communications the objects and the information about the objects; and

recording the identified objects and information about the objects.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of recording the information about the objects comprises the step of recording one or more attributes of each of the objects.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of recording the objects and the information about the objects further comprises the step of recording the objects and the information about the objects on a web page basis.

32. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of retrieving comprises the step of retrieving the objects and the information about the objects based on the recorded one or more actions.

33. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

generating one or more additional actions based on the one or more objects on which the one or more actions are performed and based on the recorded information about the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed;

performing the generated one or more additional actions on the retrieved objects corresponding to the one or more objects on which the one or more actions are performed, if the retrieved information about the retrieved objects corresponding to the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed match the recorded information about the one or more objects on which the recorded one or more actions are performed; and

monitoring the system based on one or more results of the step of performing the generated one or more additional actions on the retrieved objects.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of generating the one or more additional actions comprises the step of generating the one or more additional actions based on information provided by a user that defines the one or more additional actions.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional information about one or more of the recorded objects; and

performing the generated one or more additional actions on one or more of the recorded objects.

36. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

generating additional information about one or more of the recorded objects; and

performing the recorded one or more actions on one or more of the recorded objects.