Monitoring and controlling an automation process

• US 20090038010A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 02/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ma, Yue, Niemeyer, Patrick J.
• Application Number:
  US11/888,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20090038010A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to monitor aspects of a process, such as an automation process. In an embodiment, a system includes a number of components configured to monitor and validate operational aspects of a test automation process. In one embodiment, a monitoring application can be used to detect test automation issues, such as file related issues, registry related issues, network related issues, and other operational issues for example. The monitoring application can include a number of rule sets which may be tailored to identify and detect new types of exceptions and other conditions associated with an automation process or some other process. Other embodiments are available.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, monitor information by:

selecting one or more monitors to use as part of monitoring a number of devices associated with an automation process, wherein the one or more monitors can be used to detect a number of operational parameters associated with the number of devices;

defining a number of rules to be used by the one or more monitors when monitoring the number of devices, wherein the number of rules can be tailored for the one or more monitors to determine device actions during the automation process;

invoking the one or more monitors including the defined number of rules while monitoring the number of devices, wherein the one or more monitors can provide detection data associated with the device actions; and

,

logging the detection data to a log.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by monitoring operational aspects of a test automation process.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by modifying one or more of the number of rules to assess an operational state of one or more of the number of devices.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by monitoring an operational state of one or more of the number of devices at a beginning and at an end of the automation process.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by comparing the beginning operational state with the ending operational state of the one or more of the number of devices to determine an occurrence of a rule exception.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by performing a number of state-based comparisons to detect operational issues associated with one or more of the number of devices.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by using the detection data to minimize subsequent automation issues.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by evaluating detection data to determine allowable and prohibited device actions.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by using a file monitoring rule set to detect file related issues during the automation process.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by using a registry monitoring rule set to detect registry related issues during the automation process.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by using a network monitoring rule set to detect network related issues during the automation process.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by using an operating system rule set to detect operating system related issues during the automation process.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by synchronously monitoring one or more of the number of devices.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, monitor information by asynchronously monitoring one or more of the number of devices.

15. A system configured to monitor information comprising:

a monitor component having a number of monitors and an associated number of rules, wherein the number of rules can be defined in a configuration file and can be used to assess an aspect of an automation process, and the number of monitors can provide detection data based in part on a rule exception; and

,

a logging component to log the detection data to a log.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the number of monitors further comprise a file system monitor, a network monitor, a registry monitor, or an operating system monitor.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the monitor component and log are included on each device associated with the automation process.

18. A method of monitoring an automation process comprising:

defining a number of rule sets to be used when monitoring aspects of the automation process, wherein the number of rule sets can include a number of defined rules, including simple and complex rule parameters, directed to particular aspects of the automation process;

invoking one of more of the number of rule sets to monitor an operational state of hardware or software associated with the automation process, wherein the one or more of the number of rule sets can be used to provide detection data associated with the operational state of the hardware or the software; and

,

logging the detection data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising detecting allowable and prohibited actions according to the number of defined rules, wherein the allowable and prohibited actions can be file related, network related, registry related, or operating system related.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising performing an audit to ensure that a required resource for the automation process is available.