System for generating test scenarios and test conditions and expected results

• US 9,262,404 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Ingram, David E., Ahern, Brian, Sengupta, Shubhashis, Dwarakanath, Anurag, Singi, Kapil, Chandran, Anitha
• Primary Examiner(s): GUERRA-ERAZO, EDGAR X
• Application Number:
  US13/724,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185056A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/10, 704/E15.026, 704/E15.022, 704/270, 704/275
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30

Abstract

A requirements testing system facilitates the review and analysis of requirement statements for software applications. The requirements testing system automatically generates test artifacts from the requirement statements, including test scenarios, test conditions, test hints, and expected results. These test artifacts characterize the requirements statements to provide valuable analysis information that aids understanding what the intentions of the requirement statements are. The automation of the generation of these test artifacts produces numerous benefits, including fewer errors, objectivity, and no dependency on the skills and experience of a creator.

Claims

1. A method for generating test artifacts for a requirements sentence, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, data that defines a first document;

searching, by the processor, the data to identify data sections that define a requirements sentence;

in response to identifying a requirements sentence,

storing, by the processor, the data sections that define the requirements sentence to a memory in communication with the processor;

generating, a link grammar parser of a natural language processor, one or more links between pairs of words in the requirements sentence, wherein the link grammar parser labels the one or more links as linking pairs of words corresponding to at least one of;

words that correspond to a subject, words that correspond to a noun phrase, and words that correspond to a verb phrase;

submitting the requirements sentence to a scenario generation module to obtain a test scenario for the requirements sentence, wherein determination of the test scenario is based at least in part on the one or more links generated between pairs of words in the requirement sentence;

submitting the requirements sentence to test condition logic executed by a processor to obtain a test condition and expected result based on the requirements sentence; and

generating a report containing the test scenario, test condition, and expected result.

2. The method of claim 1, where the scenario generation module applies a test scenario generation ruleset to the requirement statement to identify the test scenario.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a test intent for the requirement statement using a test intent ruleset.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

obtaining a test condition based on the test intent, wherein the test intent is the smallest unit of the requirements sentence that is able to convey enough information to obtain a test condition from.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the test condition logic analyzes the test intent to determine the test condition and expected result.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

pre-processing the requirements sentence through pre-processor logic prior to submitting the requirements sentence to the scenario generation module.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

pre-processing the requirements sentence through pre-processor logic, wherein the pre-processing includes partitioning the requirements sentence into a plurality of portions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one test intent is identified from at least one of the plurality of portions of the requirements sentence, wherein the test intent is the smallest unit of the requirements sentence that is able to convey enough information to obtain a test condition from.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a test condition is generated for each test intent that is identified.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

pre-processing the requirements sentence through pre-processor logic, wherein the pre-processing includes modifying the requirements sentence according to at least one rule from a pre-processor ruleset.

11. A method for generating a test condition and expected result for a requirements sentence, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, data that defines a first document;

searching, by the processor, the data to identify data sections that define a requirements sentence;

in response to identifying a requirements sentence,

storing, by the processor, the data sections that define the requirements sentence to a memory in communication with the processor;

generating, by a link grammar parser of a natural language processor, one or more links between pairs of words in the requirements sentence, wherein the link grammar parser labels the one or more links as linking pairs of words corresponding to at least one of;

words that correspond to a subject, words that correspond to a noun phrase, and words that correspond to a verb phrase;

identifying, with analysis logic executed by a processor, a test intent for the requirements sentence based at least one part on the one or more links generated by the link grammar parser;

arranging, with test condition logic executed by a processor, the test intent into a positive test condition and positive expected result.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating, with the test condition logic, a negative test condition and negative expected result.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

arranging, with the test condition logic, the one or more test intents into a positive test sequence.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

displaying the positive test condition and positive expected result.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

parsing the requirements sentence using an entity extractor prior to parsing the requirements sentence using the link grammar parser.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein parsing the requirements sentence using the entity extractor comprises at least identifying noun units within the requirements sentence, and

wherein parsing the requirements sentence using the link grammar parser comprises recognizing each noun unit as a noun.

17. A requirements sentence testing system comprising:

a natural language processor that includes a grammatical parser logic configured to generate one or more links between pairs of words in a requirements sentence, wherein the link grammar parser labels the one or more links as linking pairs of words corresponding to at least one of;

words that correspond to a subject, words that correspond to a noun phrase, and words that correspond to a verb phrase;

a second processor;

a memory in communication with the second processor that includes instruction code for causing the second processor to obtain a requirements sentence and store the requirements sentence in the memory;

communicate the requirements sentence to the grammatical parser logic to obtain a parsed requirements sentence;

identify a test intent for the requirements sentence using the parsed requirement statement; and

test condition logic operable to, when executed by the processor;

obtain the test intent from the analysis logic; and

arrange the test intent into a positive test condition and positive expected result.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a pre-processor operable to pre-process the requirements sentence prior to submitting the requirements sentence to a scenario generation module to obtain a test scenario for the requirements sentence.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a pre-processor operable to partition the requirement statement into multiple portions, and

where the analysis logic is further operable to identify the test intent from at least one portion of the requirements sentence.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a pre-processor operable to modify the requirements sentence according to at least one rule from a pre-processor ruleset.