Method and apparatus for processing information on software defects during computer software development

• US 20040205727A1
• Filed: 04/14/2003
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sit, Steven, DeKimpe, Daniel, Phung, Tamuyen
• Granted Patent: US 7,401,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

An apparatus for processing data relating to software defects operates within an on-line analytical processing environment that includes an on-line analytical processing presentation tool (60). An on-line analytical processing cube model builder (32) builds a plurality of interrelated tables (22) with on-line analytical processing cube model metadata (30). The cube model (30) is configured to be processed by the associated on-line analytical processing presentation tool (60). A data extraction tool (36) communicates with a defect tracking database (10, 12) containing said data relating to software defects. The data extraction tool (36) extracts said data from the defect tracking database (10, 12), transforms the extracted data into the software defect entries, and loads the software defect entries into the tables (22).

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing data relating to software defects, the apparatus operative within an associated on-line analytical processing environment that includes at least an on-line analytical processing presentation tool for presenting results of on-line analytical processing, the apparatus comprising:

an on-line analytical processing cube model builder for building a plurality of interrelated tables with on-line analytical processing cube model metadata, the tables including at least a defects fact table containing software defects entries corresponding to said data relating to software defects and a plurality of dimension tables, the cube model being configured to be processed by the associated on-line analytical processing presentation tool; and

a data extraction tool communicating with a defect tracking database containing said data relating to software defects, the data extraction tool extracting said data from the defect tracking database, transforming the extracted data into the software defect entries, and loading the software defect entries into the defects fact table.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the plurality of dimension tables include:

a time dimension table storing year, month, and day dimensional data and at least one of week dimensional data and quarter dimensional data.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the fact table is joined to the time dimension table.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the data extraction tool is adapted to communicate with a project management tool to extract data pertaining to identified software defects therefrom; and

the transforming of the extracted data into software defect entries includes incorporating the data extracted from the project management tool into the software defect entries.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further including:

an on-line analytical processing cube builder accessing the on-line analytical processing cube model metadata and constructing an on-line analytical processing cube having selected dimensions from the cube model.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein the on-line analytical processing cube builder is integrated with the presentation tool.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the data extraction tool is responsive to a data refresh trigger to update software defect entries in the on-line analytical processing cube model at selected times.

8. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the on-line analytical processing cube model builder includes:

a tables builder for building the defects fact table and the plurality of dimension tables; and

a dimensional data loader for loading dimensional data into the dimension tables.

9. The apparatus as set forth in claim 8, wherein the on-line analytical processing cube model builder further includes:

a dimensional data generator for generating at least some of the dimensional data loaded by the dimensional data loader.

10. The apparatus as set forth in claim 9, wherein the dimensional data generator outputs a text file containing dimensional data.

11. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the on-line analytical processing cube model metadata conforms with a standardized general purpose metadata specification, and the on-line analytical processing presentation tool is operable with the standardized general purpose metadata specification.

12. A method for processing data on software, the method comprising:

formatting information pertaining to identified software defects and loading the formatted information as defect entries into a defects database;

constructing a multidimensional on-line analytical processing cube model associated with the defects database, the cube model including at least a plurality of time dimensions;

constructing an on-line analytical processing cube based on the defects database, the cube model, and a selection of cube dimensions; and

accessing the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the constructing of an on-line analytical processing cube includes:

for at least one selected cube dimension, selecting a hierarchy of the selected dimension.

14. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the constructing of a multidimensional on-line analytical processing cube model includes:

generating a plurality of tables including at least a fact table and a plurality of dimension tables;

joining at least some columns of the fact table with dimension tables; and

loading dimensional data into the dimension tables.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14, wherein the constructing of a multidimensional on-line analytical processing cube model further includes:

generating at least some of the dimensional data algorithmically.

16. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the accessing of the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool includes:

selecting dimensions of the cube for display; and

displaying a tabulation of cube contents, the tabulation having the selected dimensions.

17. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the accessing of the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool includes:

selecting one of the cube dimensions as an abscissa dimension; and

plotting a measure of the on-line analytical processing cube versus the abscissa dimension.

18. The method as set forth in claim 12, further including:

prior to the formatting of information pertaining to identified software defects, extracting the information pertaining to identified software defects from a defect tracking database.

19. The method as set forth in claim 12, further including:

prior to the formatting of information pertaining to identified software defects, extracting the information pertaining to identified software defects from at least one of a defect tracking database and a project management tool.

20. The method as set forth in claim 12, wherein the formatting of information pertaining to identified software defects and loading the formatted information as defect entries into a defects database includes:

associating an extract date with each defect entry, the extract date indicating when the defect entry was read from an associated data source.

21. The method as set forth in claim 20, wherein the constructing of an on-line analytical processing cube based on the defects database, the cube model, and a selection of cube dimensions includes:

selecting the extract date as a cube dimension.

22. The method as set forth in claim 21, wherein the accessing of the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool includes:

slicing, dicing, or drilling through the on-line analytical processing cube using the extract date dimension to present a temporal snapshot of the defects data.

23. An article of manufacture comprising a program storage medium readable by a computer and embodying one or more instructions executable by the computer to perform a method for processing data on identified software defects, the method comprising:

generating an on-line analytical processing cube containing information pertaining to identified software defects; and

accessing the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool.

24. The article of manufacture as set forth in claim 23, wherein the generating of an on-line analytical processing cube includes:

constructing a multidimensional on-line analytical processing cube model including at least a plurality of time dimensions;

formatting information pertaining to identified software defects and storing the formatted information as defect entries associated with the cube model; and

constructing the on-line analytical processing cube based on the stored defect entries, the cube model, and selected cube dimensions.

25. The article of manufacture as set forth in claim 24, wherein the formatting of information pertaining to identified software defects and storing the formatted information as defect entries associated with the cube model includes:

extracting the information pertaining to identified software defects at selected times; and

during the formatting of defect entries, tagging each defect entry with at least one of an extraction date value and an extraction time value.

26. The article of manufacture as set forth in claim 25, wherein the selected cube dimensions of the on-line analytical processing cube include an extraction time dimension, and the accessing of the on-line analytical processing cube using an on-line analytical processing presentation tool includes:

plotting a cube dimension other than the extraction time dimension against the extraction time dimension.

27. The article of_manufacture as set forth in claim 23, wherein the accessing of the on-line analytical processing cube includes:

communicating selected portions of said information pertaining to the identified software defects from the on-line analytical processing presentation tool to a spreadsheet program; and

displaying one of a tabulation and a plot of the communicated selection portions using the spreadsheet program.