Risk formula for erroneous software components detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016378618-A1
Application number	US-201514753606-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2015
Priority date	Jun 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for performing software error detection and prediction. The method includes identifying a plurality of software components in a computer software product. For each of the software components of the plurality of software components, the risk-relevant historical data pertaining to the respective software component is measured, then classified into at least a set of risk-increasing data and a set of risk-decreasing data. The set of risk-increasing data and the set of risk-decreasing data are then normalized, and a failure risk value for the respective software component is calculated by subtracting a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-decreasing data from a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-increasing data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for performing software error detection and prediction, the method comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors, a plurality of software components; and for each software component of the plurality of software components:
measuring, by one or more processors, risk-relevant historical data pertaining to the respective software component,
classifying, by one or more processors, the risk-relevant historical data into at least a set of risk-increasing data and a set of risk-deceasing data,
normalizing, by one or more processors, values for the set of risk-increasing data and the set of risk-decreasing data, and
calculating, by one or more processors, a failure risk value for the respective software component by subtracting a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-decreasing data from a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-increasing data.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
ordering, by one or more processors, the software components of the plurality of software components based, at least in part, on their associated failure risk values; and performing, by one or more processors, a software failure test, prioritizing the software components with higher failure risk values.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the risk-relevant historical data includes at least one of the following:
one or more analysis reports relating to a previous version of the respective software component; one or more owners of one or more changesets relating to the respective software component; a static code analysis of a current version of source code for the respective software component; and one or more hot factors for the respective software component.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the risk-relevant historical data includes information identifying a number of owners of a changeset relating to the respective software component; and when the number of owners of the respective changeset relating to the respective software component differs substantially from numbers of owners for changesets relating to other software components of the plurality of software components, the number of owners of the respective changeset relating to the respective software component is classified as risk-increasing data.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein normalizing the values for the set of risk-increasing data and the set of risk-decreasing data comprises:
calculating the mean of the values for the respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data; calculating the standard deviation of the values for the respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data; and for each value in each respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data, subtracting the respective mean from the respective value and dividing the difference by the respective standard deviation.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the risk-relevant historical data comprises:
collecting the risk-relevant historical data for a determined time range, wherein the determined time range includes a plurality of risk-relevant historical data from one or more previous versions of the software components.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the normalized values for risk-increasing data are positive and the normalized values for risk-decreasing data are negative.

8 . A computer program product for performing software error detection and prediction, 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 a plurality of software components; and program instructions to, for each software component of the plurality of software components:
measure risk-relevant historical data pertaining to the respective software component,
classify the risk-relevant historical data into at least a set of risk-increasing data and a set of risk-deceasing data,
normalize values for the set of risk-increasing data and the set of risk-decreasing data, and
calculate a failure risk value for the respective software component by subtracting a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-decreasing data from a weighted sum of the normalized values for the risk-increasing data.

9 . The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising:
program instructions to order the software components of the plurality of software components based, at least in part, on their associated failure risk values; and program instructions to perform a software failure test, prioritizing the software components with higher failure risk values.

10 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the risk-relevant historical data includes at least one of the following:
one or more analysis reports relating to a previous version of the respective software component; one or more owners of one or more changesets relating to the respective software component; a static code analysis of a current version of source code for the respective software component; and one or more hot factors for the respective software component.

11 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein:
the risk-relevant historical data includes information identifying a number of owners of a changeset relating to the respective software component; and when the number of owners of the respective changeset relating to the respective software component differs substantially from numbers of owners for changesets relating to other software components of the plurality of software components, the number of owners of the respective changeset relating to the respective software component is classified as risk-increasing data.

12 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to normalize the values for the set of risk-increasing data and the set of risk-decreasing data comprise:
program instructions to calculate the mean of the values for the respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data; program instructions to calculate the standard deviation of the values for the respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data; and program instructions to, for each value in each respective set of risk-increasing data or risk-decreasing data, subtract the respective mean from the respective value and dividing the difference by the respective standard deviation.

13 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions to measure the risk-relevant historical data comprises:
program instructions to collect the risk-relevant historical data for a determined time range, wherein the determined time range includes a plurality of risk-relevant historical data from one or more previous versions of the software components.

14 . The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the normalized values for risk-increasing data are positive and the normalized values for risk-decreasing data are negative.

15 . A computer system for performing software error detection and prediction, the computer system comprising:
one or more computer processors; one or more computer readable storage media; program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising: program instructions to identify a plurality of software components; and program instructions to, for each software component of the plurality of software components:
measure risk-relevant

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cmielowski Lukasz G
• Franczyk Marek
• Karcz Robert
• Wrobel Andrzej J

Classifications

• G06F11/008 Primary

  Reliability or availability analysis · CPC title

• G06F11/3624

  by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler · CPC title

• G06F11/3672

  Test management · CPC title

• G06F11/3612

  by runtime analysis (performance monitoring G06F11/3466) · CPC title

• G06F11/3616

  using software metrics · CPC title