Managing maintenance tasks for computer programs

• US 8,301,605 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Pramod
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital, Pierre
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Taelor
• Application Number:
  US11/958,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,779 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for managing maintenance of a computer program can include the steps of receiving usage data from a plurality of users of the computer program, wherein the usage data identifies at least one portion of the computer program accessed by one of the users, and for each portion of the computer program, determining a usage according to the received usage data and assigning a priority level according to the determined usage, where the priority level indicates a relative priority of the portion compared to other portions in the computer program.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

performing an operation to facilitate prioritizing program maintenance of a computer program by communicating with a plurality of instances of the computer program, each instance executing on a respective client, wherein the computer program is logically divided into a plurality of modules, and wherein the computer program is configured to log, at a predetermined interval of time, execution and error information at least at module-specific and user-specific granularity, wherein the operation comprises;

detecting an occurrence of a trigger event configured to occur upon each of at least two of;

a first event comprising receiving a request to prioritize program maintenance of the plurality of modules;

a second event comprising receiving an indication of a program error in the computer program;

a third event comprising determining that the reported program error pertains to a module of the plurality of modules, that has an execution frequency below a threshold; and

a fourth event comprising determining that a predefined period of time has elapsed since a previous occurrence of the trigger event;

upon detecting the occurrence of the trigger event, analyzing at least a subset of the logged execution and error information to determine, for each module of the computer program, an execution frequency and an error frequency; and

determining, by operation of one or more computer processors, a plurality of maintenance priority scores including, for each module of the computer program, a maintenance priority score based on the execution frequency and the error frequency for the respective module of the computer program and further based on one or more priority scoring rules, wherein program maintenance comprises altering code associated with the computer program to correct one or more program errors in the computer program and is performed on the plurality of modules in an order determined based on the plurality of maintenance priority scores.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the execution and error information indicates a history of use of each module by one or more users of the computer program.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the program maintenance is prioritized based on a comparison of respective total amounts of use of the modules of the computer program within a predetermined period of time.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the program maintenance is prioritized based on a comparison of respective total numbers of the one or more users accessing the modules of the computer program within a predetermined period of time.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the code associated with the computer program comprises at least one of source code and executable code.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of maintenance priority scores is determined by an application, wherein the one or more priority scoring rules specify at least one of a plurality of positive correlations between priority score and a plurality of attributes, wherein the application comprises a maintenance management application configured to communicate with each instance of the computer program via a maintenance data store, wherein the logged execution and error information is stored in the maintenance data store, wherein the plurality of attributes include execution frequency, error frequency, user identity, user count, and program error type, wherein the computer program is logically divided into the plurality of modules based on user input, wherein each module is uniquely identifiable via a respective module name.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the one or more priority scoring rules are user-defined and specify a first positive correlation between execution frequency and priority score, a second positive correlation between error frequency and priority score, a third positive correlation between user identity and priority score, a fourth positive correlation between user count and priority score, and a fifth positive correlation between program error type and priority score.

5. A system, comprising:

one or more computer processors;

a memory containing an application which, when executed by the one or more computer processors, is configured to perform an operation to facilitate prioritizing program maintenance of a computer program by communicating with a plurality of instances of the computer program, each instance executing on a respective client, wherein the computer program is logically divided into a plurality of modules, and wherein the computer program is configured to log, at a predetermined interval of time, execution and error information at least at module-specific and user-specific granularity, wherein the operation comprises;

detecting an occurrence of a trigger event configured to occur upon each of at least two of;

a first event comprising receiving a request to prioritize program maintenance of the plurality of modules;

a second event comprising receiving an indication of a program error in the computer program;

a third event comprising determining that the reported program error pertains to a module of the plurality of modules, that has an execution frequency below a threshold; and

a fourth event comprising determining that a predefined period of time has elapsed since a previous occurrence of the trigger event;

upon detecting the occurrence of the trigger event, analyzing at least a subset of the logged execution and error information to determine, for each module of the computer program, an execution frequency and an error frequency; and

determining a plurality of maintenance priority scores including, for each module of the computer program, a maintenance priority score based on the execution frequency and the error frequency for the respective module of the computer program and further based on one or more priority scoring rules, wherein program maintenance comprises altering code associated with the computer program to correct one or more program errors in the computer program and is performed on the plurality of modules in an order determined based on the plurality of maintenance priority scores.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the execution and error information indicates a history of use of each module by one or more users of the computer program.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the program maintenance is prioritized based on a comparison of respective total amounts of use of the modules of the computer program within a predetermined period of time.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the program maintenance is prioritized based on a comparison of respective total numbers of the users accessing the modules of the computer program within a predetermined period of time.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the code associated with the computer program comprises at least one of source code and executable code.

17. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more priority scoring rules specify at least one of a plurality of positive correlations between priority score and a plurality of attributes, wherein the application comprises a maintenance management application configured to communicate with each instance of the computer program via a maintenance data store, wherein the logged execution and error information is stored in the maintenance data store, wherein the plurality of attributes include execution frequency, error frequency, user identity, user count, and program error type, wherein the computer program is logically divided into the plurality of modules based on user input, wherein each module is uniquely identifiable via a respective module name.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more priority scoring rules are user-defined and specify a first positive correlation between execution frequency and priority score, a second positive correlation between error frequency and priority score, a third positive correlation between user identity and priority score, a fourth positive correlation between user count and priority score, and a fifth positive correlation between program error type and priority score.

9. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable storage device having computer-readable program code embodied therewith to facilitate prioritizing program maintenance of a computer program by communicating with a plurality of instances of the computer program, each instance executing on a respective client, wherein the computer program is logically divided into a plurality of modules, and wherein the computer program is configured to log, at a predetermined interval of time, execution and error information at least at module-specific and user-specific granularity, the computer-readable program code comprising;

computer-readable program code configured to detect an occurrence of a trigger event configured to occur upon each of at least two of;

a first event comprising receiving a request to prioritize program maintenance of the plurality of modules;

a second event comprising receiving an indication of a program error in the computer program;

a third event comprising determining that the reported program error pertains to a module of the plurality of modules, that has an execution frequency below a threshold; and

a fourth event comprising determining that a predefined period of time has elapsed since a previous occurrence of the trigger event;

computer-readable program code configured to, upon detecting the occurrence of the trigger event, analyze at least a subset of the logged execution and error information to determine, for each module of the computer program, an execution frequency and an error frequency; and

computer-readable program code configured to determine, by operation of one or more computer processors when executing the computer-readable program code, a plurality of maintenance priority scores including, for each module of the computer program, a maintenance priority score based on the execution frequency and the error frequency for the respective module of the computer program and further based on one or more priority scoring rules, wherein program maintenance comprises altering code associated with the computer program to correct one or more program errors in the computer program and is performed on the plurality of modules in an order determined based on the plurality of maintenance priority scores.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the execution and error information indicates a history of use of each module by one or more users of the computer program.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the program maintenance is prioritized based on a comparison of at least one of:

(i) respective total amounts of use of the modules of the computer program within a predetermined period of time and (ii) respective total numbers of users accessing the modules of the computer program within the predetermined period of time.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the code associated with the computer program comprises at least one of source code and executable code.

19. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the one or more priority scoring rules specify at least one of a plurality of positive correlations between priority score and a plurality of attributes, wherein the computer-readable program code is at least part of an application comprising a maintenance management application configured to communicate with each instance of the computer program via a maintenance data store, wherein the logged execution and error information is stored in the maintenance data store, wherein the plurality of attributes include execution frequency, error frequency, user identity, user count, and program error type, wherein the computer program is logically divided into the plurality of modules based on user input, wherein each module is uniquely identifiable via a respective module name.