Method and system for analysis of software requirements

• US 7,228,524 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2002
• Issued: 06/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Coughenour, William E. Jr., Bailey, Bruce Lindley-Burr, Stenstrom, Tomas Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): Steelman; Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOW, CHIH CHING
• Application Number:
  US10/326,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20040123272A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 717/100, 717/101, 717/120
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable

Abstract

To help identify shortcomings in software requirements for a software capability early in the software development life cycle, the present invention discloses a method of logic testing a software requirement for a software capability, the method comprising: (a) defining a logical representation of the software requirement; (b) defining a test scenario that corresponds to the software requirement; and (c) processing the defined logical representation with the defined test scenario to thereby generate a simulation result indicative of whether the software requirement needs alteration. Preferably, the present invention is implemented as an integrated tool executed by a desktop PC or workstation that interacts with the user through a variety of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to perform logic testing of software requirements.

Claims

1. A method of logic testing a software requirement for a software capability, the method comprising:

defining a software requirement in plain language;

translating the plain language of the software requirement into a logical format that is parsable into programming code, wherein the logical format is defined by a structured requirement language, the structured requirement language is definable by a Backus Naur Form;

defining a test scenario by specifying one or more variables that correspond to the software requirement; and

processing the logical format with the defined test scenario to thereby generate a simulation result indicative of whether the software requirement functioned as expected.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the method steps are performed prior to a code and unit test phase for the software capability.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the method steps are performed prior to a detailed design phase for the software capability.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the method steps are performed prior to a software preliminary design phase for the software capability.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the method steps are performed during a software requirements analysis phase for the software capability.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein there are a plurality of software requirements, wherein the variable specifying comprises defining a plurality of variables pertinent to the software requirements, wherein the translating the plain language comprises translating the plain language for each software requirement, wherein the test scenario defining step comprises defining at least one test scenario for at least one of the defined software requirements.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a first graphical user interface (GUI) through which the user defines the variables.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising providing a second GUI through which the logical format is displayed.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising providing a third GUI through which the user defines the test scenarios.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

providing a fourth GUI through which the user groups a plurality of logical representations of the logical format for related software requirements into a testable group;

defining a test scenario that corresponds to the testable group; and

processing the testable group with the test scenario defined therefor to thereby generate a simulation result indicative of whether the group of related software requirements needs alteration.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating a report of the simulation result.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing a fifth GUI through which the user selects a test scenario and a logical representation of the logical format or testable group for processing.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the test scenario defining step comprises defining an initial value for each variable pertinent to the software requirement or testable group to be processed.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the test scenario defining step further comprises defining an expected value in the simulation result for each variable pertinent to the software requirement or testable group to be processed.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the plain language software requirement comprises a software requirement expressed as a shall statement with respect to a processing transformation for at least one input variable and at least one output variable.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the translating further comprises manually translating the plain language of the software requirement to the logical format.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the translating further comprises automatically translating the plain language of the software requirement to the logical format.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the translating further comprises automatically translating the plain language software requirement to generate a starting version of the logical format and manually defining the logical format from the starting version.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing step comprises parsing the logical format into a plurality of nodes based on a pre-defined grammar, against which the defined test scenario will be run to generate the simulation result.

20. A system for logic testing a plurality of software requirements for a software capability, the system comprising:

memory in which (1) a plurality of logical representations of the software requirements expressed in a logical format are stored, and (2) a plurality of test scenarios corresponding to the software requirements are stored; and

a processor configured to execute a program, the program configured to (1) obtain user input expressed in plain language and corresponding to a selection of a software requirement to be tested, (2) translate the plain language corresponding to the selection of the software requirement into a logical format that is parsable into programming code, wherein the logical format is defined by a structured requirement language, the structured requirement language is definable by a Backus Naur Form, (3) obtain user input corresponding to a selection of a stored test scenario and one or more variables for use in testing the selected software requirement, (4) simulate operation of the selected software requirement by testing the logical format of the selected software requirement with the selected test scenario, and (5) provide output to the user indicative of whether the software requirement simulation operated as expected.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the memory is further configured to also store the software requirements in a plain language form, and wherein the program is further configured to (1) display a graphical user interface (GUI) in which at least one plain language software requirement is shown, (2) accept user input through the GUI that corresponds to the logical format for the shown plain language software requirement, and (3) store the logical format corresponding to the user input in the memory.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the stored logical format comprise a plurality of variables associated with each other through logical operators, wherein the memory stores the plurality of variables, and wherein the program is further configured to accept user input corresponding to a definition of the variables to be stored in memory.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the program is further configured to accept user input corresponding to a definition of the logical format to be stored in memory using the stored variables.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the program is further configured to accept user input corresponding to a definition of the test scenarios to be stored in memory.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the program is further configured to (1) accept user input corresponding to a plurality of related software requirements to be grouped together as a testable group, (2) accept user input corresponding to a selection of a testable group to be tested, (3) accept user input corresponding to a selection of a stored test scenario for use in testing the selected testable group, (4) simulate operation of the selected testable group by testing the stored logical format of the related software requirements comprising the selected testable group with the test scenario selected therefor, and (5) provide output to the user indicative of whether the testable group operate as expected.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the plain language software requirement comprises a software requirement expressed as a shall statement with respect to a processing transformation for at least one input variable and at least one output variable.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the program is further configured to simulate operation of the selected software requirement by parsing the logical format into a plurality of nodes based on a pre-defined grammar, against which the selected test scenario will be run.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the program is further configured to (1) accept user input corresponding to an edit of the shown plain language software requirement, and (2) store the edited plain language software requirement in the memory.

29. The system of claim 20 wherein the memory is further configured to also store the software requirements in a plain language form, and wherein the program is further configured to (1) display a graphical user interface (GUI) in which at least one plain language software requirement is shown, (2) automatically translate the shown plain language software requirement with a natural language parsing program to generate a corresponding logical format of the plain language software requirement, and (3) store the generated logical format in the memory.

30. The system of claim 20 wherein the memory is further configured to also store the software requirements m a plain language form, and wherein the program is further configured to (1) display a graphical user interface (GUI) in which at least one plain language software requirement is shown, (2) automatically translate the shown plain language software requirement with a natural language parsing program to generate a starting version of a logical format of the plain language software requirement, (3) accept user input through corresponding to a modification of the logical format starting version to thereby produce the logical format that corresponds to the shown plain language software requirement, and (4) store the produced logical format in the memory.

31. A computer-readable medium for logic testing of a plurality of software requirements for a software capability, the computer-readable medium comprising:

a code segment for defining a plurality of logical representations of the software requirements in a logical format in response to user input, the logical format being defined by a structured requirement language, the structured requirement language being definable by a Backus Naur Form;

a code segment for defining, according to user input, a plurality of test scenarios by specifying one or more variables that correspond to the software requirements;

a code segment for parsing the logical format into a plurality of nodes based on a pre-defined grammar; and

a code segment for processing the plurality of nodes with a defined test scenario corresponding thereto to thereby generate a simulation result indicative of whether the software requirement corresponding to the processed logical format functioned as expected.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 further comprising a code segment for defining a plurality of variables pertinent to the software requirements, and wherein the code segment for defining the logical format comprises a code segment for defining the logical format according to user input using the defined variables.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 further comprising:

a code segment for presenting a first graphical user interface (GUI) configured to accept user input for defining the variables;

a code segment for presenting a second GUI configured to accept user input for defining the logical format using the defined variables;

a code segment for presenting a third GUI configured to accept user input for defining the test scenarios; and

a code segment for presenting a fourth GUI configured to accept user input for (1) selecting a software requirement for processing, and (2) selecting a test scenario with which the selected software requirement is processed.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33 further comprising a code segment for presenting a report to the user that describes the simulation result.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 33 further comprising:

a code segment for presenting a fifth GUI configured to accept user input for grouping related software requirements into a testable group;

a code segment for associating the logical representations of the testable group'"'"'s software requirements together;

a code segment for defining, according to user input, a test scenario for the testable group; and

a code segment for processing the associated logical representations of a testable group with the test scenario defined therefor to thereby generate a simulation result indicative of whether any of the related software requirements of the testable group functioned as expected.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein each plain language software requirement comprises a software requirement expressed as a shall statement with respect to a processing transformation for at least one input variable and at least one output variable.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 further comprising a code segment for accepting user input corresponding to an edit of the at least one displayed plain language software requirement.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 further comprising a code segment for displaying at least one of the software requirements in plain language, and wherein the code segment for defining the logical format comprises a code segment for automatically translating the at least one displayed plain language software requirement with a natural language parsing program to generate a corresponding pseudo-code logical representation for the at least one displayed plain language software requirement.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 further comprising a code segment for displaying at least one of the software requirements in plain language, and wherein the code segment for defining the logical format comprises (1) a code segment for automatically translating the at least one displayed plain language software requirement with a natural language parsing program to generate a starting version of a logical format for the displayed at least one plain language software requirement, and (2) a code segment for accepting user input corresponding to a modification of the starting version logical format translation to generate the logical format for the at least one displayed plain language software requirement.