AUTOMATED TEST EXECUTION PLAN GENERATION

• US 20110088014A1
• Filed: 10/08/2009
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: SUN, PETER, RAGHAVAN, VINODKUMAR, BECKER, JENNIFER G., MCCLAMROCH, KENNETH L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,423,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A set of user-configured testing parameters for a software application under test can be received by a test execution plan generation tool. At least one testing objective for the software application can be defined by user-configurable testing parameters. A test execution plan can be automatically generated utilizing the user-configured testing parameters and a predefined test execution plan data model. The predefined test execution plan data model can include testing metadata representing software testing domain data for a software testing system being used to evaluate the software application under test. The testing metadata can specify details of finite shared resources of a test center shared by all projects under test. The generated test execution plan can detail specific allocation of the finite shared resources dedicated towards at least one phase of testing the software application to satisfy the at least one testing objective for the software application.

Claims

1. A method for automatically generating test execution plans comprising:

receiving of a plurality of user-configured testing parameters for a software application under test by a test execution plan generation tool, said test execution plan tool comprising a computer program product stored on a physical medium, wherein the plurality of user-configured testing parameters correlate to at least one item contained in a predefined test execution plan data model associated with the test execution plan generation tool, and wherein at least one testing objective for the software application is defined by the user-configurable testing parameters; and

automatically generating a test execution plan utilizing the plurality of user-configured testing parameters and a predefined test execution plan data model, wherein the predefined test execution plan data model comprises testing metadata representing software testing domain data for a software testing system being used to evaluate the software application under test, said testing metadata specifying details of finite shared resources of a test center shared by all projects under test, wherein said generated test execution plan details specific allocation of the finite shared resources dedicated towards at least one phase of testing the software application to satisfy the at least one testing objective for the software application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of the test execution plan further comprises:

translating the received plurality of user-configured testing parameters into at least one generation rule, wherein the at least one generation rule is categorized as at least one of a data query constraint and a data synthesis constraint;

querying the predefined test execution plan data model for at least one testing metadata item applicable to the plurality of user-configured testing parameters;

synthesizing the at least one testing metadata item into at least one execution assignment, wherein the at least one execution assignment defines information for at least one testing activity to be performed by an assigned software tester; and

compiling the at least one synthesized execution assignment into the test execution plan.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein translating of the received plurality of user-configured testing parameters further comprises:

applying a user-defined priority value to the at least one generation rule, wherein said user-defined priority value quantifies a degree of execution precedence for a generation rule; and

adjusting an execution order of the at least one generation rule in accordance with user-defined priority values.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the querying of the predefined test execution plan data model utilizes generation rules categorized as data query constraints, and, the synthesizing of the at least one testing metadata item utilizes generation rules categorized as data synthesis constraints.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the generated test execution plan within a user interface of the test execution plan generation tool for user feedback, wherein said user feedback comprises at least one of a validation, a modification, and a rejection; and

optionally, upon receipt of the user feedback, automatically distributing the at least one execution assignment to at least one assigned software tester, wherein each assigned tester is one of the finite shared resources.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the generated test execution plan coupled with the plurality of user-configured testing parameters to add an entry in a standardized test execution plan history.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

analyzing the stored test execution plan comprising the standardized test execution plan history to generate at least one testing report, said report providing an indication of any test coverage gaps determined from analyzing the standardized test execution plan history.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user-configured testing parameters comprises at least three parameters from a group of parameters consisting of:

a name of the software application under test, a version of the software application under test, a test type, a testing environment, a name of a software tester, a skill set of an unnamed software tester, a name of a component of the software application under test, a test coverage value, a testing start date, and a test duration.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after generating a test execution plan, receiving user feedback that modifies at least one of the plurality of user-configured testing parameters; and

generating a new test execution plan based upon the modified user configured testing parameters.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a plurality of different versions of automatically generated test execution plans exist, which comprise said automatically generated test execution plan;

analyzing the different versions of the automatically generated test execution plans and presenting analysis results in at least one of a user interface of a user readable report, wherein said analysis results comprise comparisons of the different versions of the automatically generated test execution plans.

11. A system for automatically generating test execution plans comprising:

a plurality of user-configured testing parameters defining testing requirements for a software application under test to be evaluated within a software testing system, wherein at least one testing objective for a software application is defined by the user-configurable testing parameters;

a predefined test execution plan data model defining a plurality of testing metadata for generating a test execution plan for the software application under test, wherein the plurality of testing metadata is representative of a plurality of software testing domain data for the software testing system, said testing metadata specifying details of finite shared resources of a test center shared by all projects under test, wherein said generated test execution plan details specific allocation of the finite shared resources dedicated towards at last one phase of testing the software application to satisfy the at least one testing objective for the software application; and

a test execution plan generation tool configured to automatically generate the test execution plan for the software application under test utilizing the plurality of user-configured testing parameters and the predefined test execution plan data model, wherein each generated test execution plan details specific allocations of the finite shared resources dedicated towards at least one phase of testing the software application to satisfy the at least one testing objective for the software application.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the test execution plan generation tool further comprises:

a user interface configured to provide a user interaction mechanism for accepting and presenting data;

a data processing component configured to synthesize at least one execution assignment for the test execution plan;

an administrative component configured to provide access to user-configurable system data of the test execution plan generation tool;

a reporting component configured to generate at least one user-selected report for at least one of the test execution plan, the plurality of user-configured testing parameters, and the test execution plan data model; and

a data store that is a physical storage medium configured to store the predefined test execution plan data model and each generated test execution plan with associated user-configured testing parameters.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the data processing component is further configured to perform data analysis operations upon stored test execution plans.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the data processing component further comprises:

a rules translator configured to translate the plurality of user-configured testing parameters into at least one generation rule, wherein the at least one generation rule is a representation of a user-configured testing parameter capable of being executed by the test execution plan generation tool upon the predefined test execution plan data model.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a plurality of customizable generation rule templates accessible from within the user interface having at least one user-defined value associated with at least one user-configured testing parameter, wherein user-selection of a customizable generation rule template automatically populates the at least one user-configured testing parameter with the at least one user-defined value.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the reporting component further comprises:

a notification handler configured to convey an electronic notification message to each software tester identified within the test execution plan, wherein said electronic notification message contains the at least one execution assignment associated with a software tester.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of user-configured testing parameters comprises at least four of a name of the software application under test, a version of the software application under test, a test type, a testing environment, a name of a software tester, a skill set of an unnamed software tester, a name of a component of the software application under test, a test coverage value, a testing start date, and a test duration.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code digitally encoded in a physical storage medium comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive a plurality of user-configured testing parameters for a software application under test by a test execution plan generation tool, said text execution plan tool comprising a computer program product stored on a physical medium, wherein the plurality of user-configured testing parameters correlate to at least one item contained in a predefined test execution plan data model associated with the test execution plan generation tool, and wherein at least one testing objective for the software application is defined by the user-configurable testing parameters;

computer usable program code configured to automatically generate a test execution plan utilizing the plurality of user-configured testing parameters and a predefined test execution plan data model, wherein the predefined test execution plan data model comprises testing metadata representing software testing domain data for a software testing system being used to evaluate the software application under test, said testing metadata specifying details of finite shared resources of a test center shared by all projects under test, wherein said generated test execution plan details specific allocation of the finite shared resources dedicated towards at last one phase of testing the software application to satisfy the at least one testing objective for the software application; and

computer usable program code configured to store the generated test execution plan coupled with the plurality of user-configured testing parameters.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the generation of the test execution plan further comprises:

computer usable program code configured to translate the received plurality of user-configured testing parameters into at least one generation rule, wherein the at least one generation rule is categorized as at least one of a data query constraint and a data synthesis constraint;

computer usable program code configured to query the predefined test execution plan data model for at least one testing metadata item applicable to the plurality of user-configured testing parameters;

computer usable program code configured to synthesize the at least one testing metadata item into at least one execution assignment, wherein the at least one execution assignment defines information for at least one testing activity to be performed by an assigned software tester; and

computer usable program code configured to compile the at least one synthesized execution assignment into the test execution plan.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein translating of the received plurality of user-configured testing parameters further comprises:

computer usable program code configured to apply a user-defined priority value to the at least one generation rule, wherein said user-defined priority value quantifies a degree of execution precedence for a generation rule; and

computer usable program code configured to adjust an execution order of the at least one generation rule in accordance with user-defined priority values.