Using traceability links strength for software development integrity monitoring

• US 9,292,410 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2011
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bnayahu, Jonathan, Nisenson, Moti, Simionovici, Yahalomit
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kretzmer, Erika
• Application Number:
  US13/290,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20130117725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,598 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3604 Software analysis for verifying properties of programs byte-code verification G06F9/44589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/75 Structural analysis for program understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/77 Software metrics

Abstract

A computerized method that combines identifying conflicting requirements and monitoring requirements integrity. Traceability link strengths are computed between a code element and a plurality of requirements. Revised traceability link strengths are computed between a revised version of the same code element and the plurality of requirements. The revised traceability link strengths are compared to the pre-existing traceability link strengths and a deviation decreased is identified when the revised traceability link strength is less than the pre-existing traceability link strength. An additional traceability link strength is computed between the revised version of the same code element and a new requirement, the new requirement first appearing with the revised version of the same code element. A conflict between the new requirement and the pre-existing requirements is identified when both a deviation decrease is identified and when additional traceability link strength exceeds a correlation threshold.

Claims

1. A computerized method for monitoring integrity of an application development project having a plurality of code elements and a plurality of requirements by identifying inconsistency between said code elements and said requirements in development of said project based on monitoring changes to a strength of each of a plurality of traceability links between different software code versions, comprising:

computing a first strength for each of a plurality of traceability links each between a certain code element of the plurality of code elements in a current software code version of said application development project and one of the plurality of requirements;

computing a second strength for each of said plurality of traceability links in a new software code which includes a revision to said certain code element from said current software version;

identifying a deviation based on a decrease in said second strength of a first traceability link of said new software code from said first strength of said first traceability link of said current software version;

providing a correlation threshold;

wherein said new software code version comprises a new requirement first appearing in said new software code version;

computing a third strength of an additional second traceability link between said certain code element and said new requirement, wherein said first and second traceability links connected to the same certain code element and to different requirements;

identifying a conflict between said new requirement and at least one of said plurality of requirements, based on said third strength exceeding said correlation threshold and based on said deviation decrease from said first strength to said second strength; and

generating an inconsistency notification based on said identifying said conflict.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing said application development project and the plurality of requirements to automatically identify said plurality of traceability links.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a manual input indicative of said plurality of traceability links from a user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an inconsistency notification threshold;

wherein said generating comprises generating said inconsistency notification based on said deviation being greater than said inconsistency notification threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said computing further comprises performing semantic analysis of said certain code element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said computing further comprises performing semantic analysis of the plurality of requirements.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein both said current software code version and said new software code are stored in a common database and are tagged by at least one of a user and an automatic analysis of records in said database.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said computing a first strength, said computing a second strength and said generating is performed for at least one of said code elements in a current software code version and for at least one of said code elements in said new software code versions of said application development project.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said correlation threshold is manually set by a user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparing further comprising calculating a magnitude of said deviation based on a difference between said second strength and said first strength, and wherein said generating comprises generating said inconsistency notification based on said magnitude being greater than an inconsistency notification threshold.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions adapted to perform the method of claim 1.

11. A computer program product to implement a method for monitoring integrity of an application development project having a plurality of code elements and a plurality of requirements, comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage mediums, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions for computing a first strength for each of a plurality of traceability links each between a certain code element of the plurality of code elements in a current software code version of said application development project and one of the plurality of requirements;

program instructions for computing a second strength for each of said plurality of traceability links in a new software code which includes a revision to said certain code element from said current software version;

program instructions for identifying a deviation based on a decrease in said second strength of a first traceability link of said new software code from said first strength of said first traceability link of said current software version;

program instructions for providing a correlation threshold;

wherein said new software code version comprises a new requirement first appearing in said new software code version;

program instructions for computing a third strength of an additional second traceability link between said certain code element and said new requirement, wherein said first and second traceability links connected to the same certain code element and to different requirements;

program instructions for identifying a conflict between said new requirement and at least one of said plurality of requirements, based on said third strength exceeding said correlation threshold and based on said deviation decrease from said first strength to said second strength; and

program instructions for generating an inconsistency notification based on said identifying said conflict.

12. A system comprising computer hardware for monitoring of an application development project having a plurality of code elements and a plurality of requirements, comprising:

a hardware processor; and

a non-transitory memory in electrical communication with said hardware processor, said memory having stored thereon;

a traceability link strength module which uses said processor to compute a first strength for each of a plurality of traceability links each between a certain code element of the plurality of code elements in a current software code version of said application development project and one of the plurality of requirements and a second strength for each of said plurality of traceability links in a new software code which includes a revision to said certain code element from said current software version, and identifies a deviation based on a decrease in said second strength of a first traceability link of said new software code from said first strength of said first traceability link of said current software version, computes a third strength of an additional second traceability link between said certain code element and a new requirement, wherein said new software code version comprises said new requirement first appearing in said new software code version, wherein said first and second traceability links connected to the same certain code element and to different requirements, identifies a conflict between said new requirement and at least one of said plurality of requirements, based on said third strength exceeding a correlation threshold and based on said deviation decrease from said first strength to said second strength; and

an alarming module which generates an inconsistency notification based on said identifying said conflict.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising an interface which access said plurality of requirements and said plurality of code elements to identify said plurality of traceability links.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said interface receives said plurality of requirements from a software development workspace.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising a traceability link identification module which analyses said plurality of requirements and said plurality of code elements to identify said plurality of traceability links automatically.