Evaluation system

• US 5,109,350 A
• Filed: 01/25/1989
• Issued: 04/28/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1988
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Marsh, David, Henwood, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleming, Michael R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHUN, DEBRA
• Application Number:
  US07/301,418
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 364/550, 364/551.01, 364/569, 364/200 MS File, 364/900 MS File, 364/143, 371/28, 371/62, 371/16.1, 371/17, 377/20
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

An evaluation system for computer performance resulting from user generated information at a remote workstation. The system 6 includes interfaces 8, 9 between the computer 5 and the workstation 14 and means 10 for recording user generated information and computer responses and times associated therewith. A processor 11 identifies known commands and responses to produce a user profile taking into account the user thinking time and typing rate or intercharacter times. The playback block 12 allows repeated reproduction of the original user'"'"'s actions with the original delays including thinking times and intercharacter times associated therewith. During playback, the response times of the computer for commands and character echo times are measured and stored for analysis by block 13. Such analysis allow statistics for different system configurations or load conditions to be provided.

Claims

1. An evaluation system for connection to a computer to determine the computer performance in producing computer generated information in response to user generated information input to the computer from a remote workstation, said evaluation system comprising:

means connectable to a computer for accessing user generated information and computer generated information;

means for receiving accessed user generated information and computer generated information and including means for identifying predetermined specific information from that accessed indicative of a plurality of user generated commands and the computer generated responses associated therewith from the computer;

means for receiving said specific information and for measuring time periods associated with user generation of the commands; and

means responsive to said identifying means for measuring the times associated with the computer generated responses.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said means for accessing includes interface means connected between a computer and a workstation; and

said means for identifying includes code generators for generating an origin code indicative of the identified predetermined specific information that is user generated or computer generated information.

3. A system as in claim 1 or 2 wherein said means for identifying includes detector means for determining information character length to distinquish between said commands, said responses and other information.

4. A system as in claim 1 including storage means for storing accessed user generated information and computer generated response information as well as timing and control information derived from the user generated and/or computer generated information.

5. A system as in claim 4 including means for processing the computer generated responses by counting the number of characters generated during each computer generated response and storing the result in said storage means.

6. A system as in claim 4 including means for processing the user generated information to identify the type of command information generated and determine whether an echo is expected for individual command characters identified, the results therefrom being available for storage in said storage means.

7. A system as in claim 6 including means for identifying user thinking times and/or intercharacter times from the user generated information.

8. A system as in claim 4 including means for reproducing at least some of said stored user generated information to effect operation of a connected computer and means for determining the computer response to such reproduced user generated information.

9. A system as in claim 8 wherein said reproducing means include means for passing stored user generated character information to the computer at a time relationship corresponding to that indicated by the stored time information, and means for detecting character counts and echos received from the computer in response to the user generated character information and timing information on these responses.

10. A system as in claim 8 including means for storing the computer generated response information together with original user generated information previously identified.

11. A system as in claim 10 including means for providing statistical information on a number of responses associated with specific user generated character echo times.

12. A system as in claim 11 wherein the means for providing includes means for sequentially accessing stored response information to determine the occurances of specific command types for accumulation in an identification analysis store.

13. A system as in claim 11 including output means for providing statistical information for display on a connected remote workstation.

14. A system as in claim 1 wherein the accessing means, identifying means and measuring means comprise an evaluation computer interfaced in series with a computer to be evaluated and with the workstation, said evaluation computer being configured to provide displayed information on the evaluation of the computer performance being evaluated.

15. A method for evaluating computer performance in response to user generated information produced from a remote workstation connected to interface with the computer being evaluated, said method comprising:

accessing user generated information from the remote workstation indicative of a plurality of commands and also accessing the computer generated responses associated therewith from the computer,

measuring time periods associated with generation of user generated commands, and

measuring time periods associated with computer generated responses.

16. A method as in claim 15 wherein the accessing step includes generating an origin code indicative of whether specific accessed information is user or computer generated.

17. A method as in claim 15 or 16 including detecting character lengths of the accessed information to distinguish between user generated commands, computer generated responses and other information.

18. A method as in claim 15 further including a step of storing accessed user generated information, and computer generated response information as well as timing and control information derived from said user generated and/or computer generated information.

19. A method as in claim 15 further including a step of counting the number of characters generated during each computer response and storing the result in a memory device.

20. A method as in claim 15 further including identifying a command string, if any, generated by the user to determine whether an echo is to be expected from the computer and storing information identifying same.

21. A method as in claim 20 including identifying user thinking times and/or intercharacter times from the user generated information.

22. A method as in claim 15 including the steps of storing and reproducing at least some of the accessed user generated information to effect operation of the computer and determining the computer generated responses thereto.

23. A method as in claim 22 wherein the reproducing step includes passing stored user generated character information to the computer at predetermined time intervals and detecting in responsive computer generated information character counts and echos.

24. A method as in claim 23 including storing the computer generated response information together with original user generated command information previously stored.

25. A method as in claim 22 including the step of generating statistical information on a number of computer generated responses associated with specific user generated commands and/or with computer generated character echo times.

26. A method as in claim 25 further including a step of sequentially accessing stored computer generated response information to determine occurrances of specific command types for accumulation in an identification analysis store.

27. A method as in claim 25 including providing analysed information for display on the remote workstation.

28. An evaluation system for computer performance including:

means for accessing user and computer generated information;

means for storing said accessed information including elapsed times associated with the generation of said accessed information;

means for distinguishing between types of information accessed so as to identify user generated information and computer generated information; and

means for reproducing at least some of said stored user information to effect operation of a connected computer to allow determination of responses from the connected computer to said reproduced information.

29. A method for evaluating computer performance including:

accessing user and computer generated information;

storing at least some of said accessed information including elapsed times associated with its generation;

distinguishing between types of information accessed so as to identify user generated information and computer generated information; and

reproducing at least some of said stored user information to effect operation of a connected computer to allow determination of responses from the connected computer to said reproduced information.