CODE EVALUATION BASED ON FAILURE PREDICTION

• US 20120284697A1
• Filed: 05/05/2011
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Arun, Shetty, Rohit, Choppakatla, Satya R. P., Rajamanickam, Logeswaran T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,495,581 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3616 using software metrics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3676 for coverage analysis

Abstract

A method and apparatus for evaluating code. A likelihood that a set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on a policy is identified. A risk of the code not performing as desired is evaluated based on a result from a code coverage test and the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating code, the method comprising:

identifying a likelihood that a set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on a policy; and

evaluating a risk of the code not performing as desired based on a result from a code coverage test and the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

running the code coverage test to generate the result, wherein the result identifies portions of the code run during the code coverage test.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on the policy comprises:

assigning a risk value to a segment in the set of segments based on at least one of whether the segment is run during the code coverage test and a feature for the segment as defined by the policy.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

instrumenting the code to identify a segment of code as the segment of code that is run during the code coverage test, and wherein the evaluating step comprises;

assigning a risk value to the segment of code when the segment of code is identified as being run during the code coverage test, wherein an identification of the segment of code as being run is a portion of the result;

assigning a value to each of a set of related segments that is related to the segment of code when the segment of code is identified as being run during the code coverage test; and

identifying the risk not performing as desired using values generated while running the code coverage test.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

running the code coverage test to generate a result with a coverage of the code prior to evaluating the risk of the code not performing as desired based on the result from the code coverage test and the likelihood that segments of the code will not run as desired.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting an order to run code coverage tests in a group of code coverage tests based on the likelihood that a set of particular segments in the set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on the policy.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating the code coverage test based on the likelihood that a set of particular segments in the set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on the policy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy identifies a feature for a segment and a set of rules to assign a risk value to a group of segments in the code based on an event involving the segment based on the feature.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a segment is selected from one of a line of the code, a loop, a function, and a module.

10. A computer comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein program code is stored on the storage device; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit is configured to run the program code to identify a likelihood that a set of segments of code will not run as desired based on a policy; and

evaluate a risk of the code not performing as desired based on a result from a code coverage test and the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired.

11. The computer of claim 10, wherein the processor unit is further configured to run the code coverage test to generate the result, wherein the result identifies portions of the code run during the code coverage test.

12. The computer of claim 10, wherein in being configured to identify the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired based on the policy, the processor unit is further configured to assign a risk value to a segment in the set of segments based on at least one of whether the segment is run during the code coverage test and a feature for the segment as defined by the policy.

13. The computer of claim 10, wherein the processor unit is further configured to instrument the code to identify a segment of code as the segment of code is run during the code coverage test and wherein in being configured to evaluate the risk of the code not performing as desired based on the result from the code coverage test and the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired, the processor unit is further configured to assign a risk value to the segment of code when the segment of code is identified as being run during the code coverage test in which an identification of the segment of code as being run is a portion of the result and assign the risk value to each of a set of related segments that is related to the segment of code when the segment of code is identified as being run during the code coverage test;

and identify the risk using risk values generated while running the code coverage test.

14. The computer of claim 10, wherein the processor unit is further configured to run the code coverage test to generate a result with a coverage of the code prior to evaluating the risk of the code not performing as desired based on the result from the code coverage test and the likelihood that segments of the code will not run as desired.

15. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium;

first program code for identifying a likelihood that a set of segments of code will not run as desired based on a policy; and

second program code for evaluating a risk of the code not performing as desired based on a result from a code coverage test and the likelihood that the set of segments of the code will not run as desired, wherein the first program code and the second program code are stored on the computer readable storage medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable storage medium is in a data processing system, and the first program code and second program code are downloaded over a network from a remote data processing system to the computer readable storage medium in the data processing system.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the computer readable storage medium is a first computer readable storage medium, wherein the first computer readable storage medium is in a server data processing system, and wherein the first program code and the second program code is downloaded over a network to a remote data processing system for use in a second computer readable storage medium in the remote data processing system.