Automatic cognitive adaptation of development assets according to requirement changes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10884904-B2
Application number	US-201715797056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2017
Priority date	Jan 7, 2016
Publication date	Jan 5, 2021
Grant date	Jan 5, 2021

Abstract

A cognitive engine is coupled to at least one requirements management tool and at least one quality management tool. The cognitive engine is configured to: transform the test cases and the initial software requirements into test case objects and requirement objects, respectively; link test case objects to corresponding requirements objects based on like attributes; provide a graphical representation showing test case objects linked to corresponding requirements objects; automatically update the graphical representation in response to updated software requirements or new software requirements; and automatically disseminate the graphical representation or the updated graphical representation if the test case effectiveness exceeds a predetermined confidence threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of tracking requirements in a software development project, the method comprising:
providing at least one initial software requirement, updated software requirement, or new software requirement via at least one requirements management tool;
providing initial test cases corresponding to the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement via at least one quality management tool;
transforming the test cases and the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement into test case objects and requirement objects, respectively;
linking the test case objects to corresponding requirements objects based on the mutual attributes; and
automatically disseminating the graphical representation if the at least one new test case exceeds a predetermined confidence threshold,
wherein the cognitive engine is configured to perform a propagation analysis to determine if the graphical representation is in a stable state,
wherein the propagation analysis is depicted by providing a nodal indication that moves from node to node until the graphical representation settles into a stable state or remains in an unstable state, and
wherein the cognitive engine is configured to call a test case design program in the unstable state, the test case design program being configured to identify new requirement attributes or modified requirement attributes corresponding to the unstable state and transform said new requirement attributes or modified requirement attributes into human readable indicia corresponding to a new test case configured to remedy the unstable state.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
semantically analyzing the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement to identify requirement attribute changes; and
updating the graphical representation based on the requirement attribute changes.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement is transformed into requirement attributes, and wherein the requirement attributes are further transformed into human readable indicia corresponding to a test case, the human readable indicia being disseminated to the at least one quality management tool.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one requirements management tool or the at least one quality management tool include display devices configured to display the graphical representation.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the graphical representation is displayed as a nodal plot having requirement nodes linked to corresponding test case nodes by linking arcs, each linking arc representing at least one requirement attribute linked to at least one test case attribute.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of providing the test case to a quality manager tool, the quality manager tool being configured to validate the test case based on the predetermined confidence threshold, the quality manager tool being further configured to provide an updated predetermined confidence threshold.

7. A tracking system for a software program development, the tracking system comprising:
at least one requirements management tool stored in a memory configured to provide at least one initial software requirement, updated software requirement, or new software requirement;
at least one quality management tool coupled to the at least one requirements management tool, the at least one quality management tool stored in the memory being configured to generate a test case corresponding to the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement, each test case configured to determine that the software program satisfies the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement; and
a cognitive engine coupled to the at least one requirements management tool and the at least one quality management tool, the cognitive engine stored in the memory being configured to: (1) transform the test case and the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement into test case objects and requirement objects, respectively; (2) link the test case objects to the corresponding requirements objects based on the mutual attributes; and (3) automatically disseminate a graphical representation showing the test case objects linked to the corresponding requirements objects, if a test case effectiveness calculation exceeds a predetermined confidence threshold; and
wherein the cognitive engine is configured to perform a propagation analysis to determine if the graphical representation is in a stable state,
wherein the propagation analysis is depicted by providing a nodal indication that moves from node to node until the graphical representation settles into a stable state or remains in an unstable state, and
wherein the cognitive engine is configured to call a test case design program in the unstable state, the test case design program being configured to identify new requirement attributes or modified requirement attributes corresponding to the unstable state and transform said new requirement attributes or modified requirement attributes into human readable indicia corresponding to a new test case configured to remedy the unstable state.

8. The tracking system of claim 7 , wherein the cognitive engine further comprises:
a monitoring program stored in the memory being configured to semantically analyze the at least one initial, updated, or new software requirement to identify requirement attribute changes;
an iteration program stored in the memory configured to iterate the graphical representation to determine which test cases are affected by the requirement attribute changes; and a graph updating program configured to update the graphical representation based on the requirement attribute changes.

9. The tracking system of claim 8 , wherein the cognitive engine further includes a test case program stored in memory being configured to transform the requirement attribute changes into human readable indicia corresponding to a suggested test case, the suggested test case being disseminated to the at least one quality management tool.

10. The tracking system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one requirements management tool or the at least one quality management tool comprises a display device configured to display the graphical representation.

11. The tracking system of claim 10 , wherein the graphical representation is displayed as a nodal plot having the requirement nodes linked to corresponding test case nodes by linking arcs, each linking arc representing a test case object linked to a corresponding requirement objects based on mutual attributes.

12. The tracking system of claim 7 , wherein the cognitive engine is configured to reside on a server platform, and wherein the at least one requirements management tool or the at least one quality management tool are configured to reside on client computing devices.

13. The tracking system of claim 12 , wherein the server platform is coupled to the client devices via at least one network.

14. The tracking system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one network is selected from a group of networks including a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), a cloud computing arrangement, the Internet, an intranet, wireline networks, wireless networks, or fiber optic networks.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Hamilton Ii Rick A
• Kozloski James R
• Magro Agueda Martinez Hernandez
• Mosqueda Mejia Jose Roberto
• Nevarez Jorge Alonso Hernandez

Classifications

• G06F11/3684 Primary

  for test design, e.g. generating new test cases · CPC title

• G06F11/368

  for test version control, e.g. updating test cases to a new software version · CPC title

• G06F8/34

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title

• G06F11/3672 Primary

  Test management · CPC title