Predictive approach to environment provisioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016253255-A1
Application number	US-201615153775-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 13, 2016
Priority date	Oct 27, 2014
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for building an environment. Embodiments of the present invention can be used to allocate resources and build an environment such that the environment is built when a user is prepared to test one or more portions of code in the environment. Embodiments of the present invention can be used to reduce the “lag time” developers experience between waiting for the code to be built and for resources to be provisioned, and can also provide a less costly alternative to maintaining and operating dedicated environments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method for building a test environment, the method comprising:
identifying resources with which to build a test environment for a coding task involving one or more portions of code for a software program based, at least in part on one or more areas of the software program associated with the one or more portions of code, wherein the test environment to be built includes accommodations for testing one or more portions of code; and predicting a time at which to start building the test environment such that the test environment is built and made available to a user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether an existing test environment will be available for testing the one or more portions of code when the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether resources will be available for building the test environment at the predicted time at which to start building the test environment, such that the test environment is built and made available to the user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment; and responsive to determining resources will not be available for building the test environment, at the predicted time at which to start building the test environment, such that the test environment is built and made available to the user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment, alerting the user.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying resources with which to build a test environment for a coding task comprises:
accessing a task repository containing task information associated with the coding task; and determining a user has begun work on the coding task, wherein the task information comprises: a title of the coding task, a brief description of the coding task, information that describes one or more areas of the software program affected by the coding task, an estimated time to complete the coding task, and a status indicating a progress state of the coding task.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:
accessing a pool of resources;
identifying resources associated with terms found in the task information; and
identifying resources that have historically been used to build test environments for similar coding tasks.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein predicting a time at which to start building the test environment such that the test environment is built and made available to a user by the time a user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment comprises:
calculating a time at which to start building the test environment based, at least in part, on an identified length of time to perform any necessary builds of code, an identified length of time to complete the coding task, an identified start time at which the user began work on the coding task, and an identified length of time needed to build the environment, wherein the identified length of time needed to build the test environment comprises a total length of time needed to allocate the identified resources from a resource pool and configure those resources into a test environment for the coding task.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein calculating a time at which to start building the test environment comprises:
calculating a tentative start time at which to start building the test environment by adding values for the identified length of time to perform any necessary builds of code and the identified length of time to complete the coding task to the identified start time at which the user began work on the coding task, and subtracting the identified length of time needed to build the test environment.

8 . A computer program product for building a test environment, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to identify resources with which to build a test environment for a coding task involving one or more portions of code for a software program based, at least in part on one or more areas of the software program associated with the one or more portions of code, wherein the test environment to be built includes accommodations for testing one or more portions of code; and
program instructions to predict a time at which to start building the test environment such that the test environment is built and made available to a user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment.

9 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to determine whether an existing test environment will be available for testing the one or more portions of code when the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code.

10 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to determine whether resources will be available for building the test environment at the predicted time at which to start building the test environment, such that the test environment is built and made available to the user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment; and program instructions to, responsive to determining resources will not be available for building the test environment, at the predicted time at which to start building the test environment, such that the test environment is built and made available to the user by the time the user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment, alert the user.

11 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to identify resources with which to build a test environment for a coding task comprise:
program instructions to access a task repository containing task information associated with the coding task; and program instructions to determine a user has begun work on the coding task, wherein the task information comprises: a title of the coding task, a brief description of the coding task, information that describes one or more areas of the software program affected by the coding task, an estimated time to complete the coding task, and a status indicating a progress state of the coding task.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to access a pool of resources; program instructions to identify resources associated with terms found in the task information; and program instructions to identify resources that have historically been used to build test environments for similar coding tasks.

13 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to predict a time at which to start building the test environment such that the test environment is built and made available to a user by the time a user is prepared to test the one or more portions of code in the test environment comprise:
program i

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Collier Jason A
• Leigh David L
• Wei Yi-Hsiu
• Will Scott A

Classifications

• G06Q10/063114

  Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group · CPC title

• G06F11/3696

  Methods or tools to render software testable · CPC title

• G06F8/71

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F8/10

  Requirements analysis; Specification techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/3698 Primary

  Environments for analysis, debugging or testing of software · CPC title