Command Coverage Analyzer for Software Configuration Testing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current software testing methods, such as line coverage and black box testing, fail to ensure comprehensive testing of software configurations, leading to bugs and quality issues, especially in rapidly changing development environments and compressed development schedules, where customer usage scenarios are often overlooked.
Innovation Solution
The Conditional Command Coverage Analyzer (CCA) tool provides a conditional coverage metric by extracting and analyzing software configurations, permutations, and combinations, ensuring that test suites cover customer environments and adapt to changing development contexts, thereby reducing bug identification time and improving software quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional testing methods (line coverage, functional coverage) are used, then testing can be performed with existing tools, but the testing completeness is insufficient and bugs are missed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by extracting and analyzing software configurations before executing tests. The system identifies all possible configuration permutations and combinations in advance, then uses this information to guide test execution, ensuring comprehensive coverage of customer environments before bugs can occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension of configuration space analysis beyond traditional line and function coverage. By adding configuration permutations and combinations as an additional testing dimension, the system achieves more comprehensive coverage without simply increasing the complexity of existing testing methods.
2Reliability
If comprehensive testing of all configurations is performed, then software quality improves, but testing time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary extraction and analysis of software configurations to identify all possible permutations and combinations before testing. This advance preparation enables efficient test execution by focusing only on relevant configuration scenarios rather than exhaustive brute-force testing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical exhaustive testing with an intelligent analysis system that uses configuration extraction and permutation analysis. Instead of systematically testing every possible scenario through brute force, the system uses automated analysis to identify and prioritize critical configuration combinations, significantly reducing testing time while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
3Productivity
If testing is performed in compressed development schedules, then productivity increases, but testing thoroughness decreases and bugs are introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs configuration extraction and analysis as a preliminary step that can be integrated early in the development process. This enables teams to maintain compressed schedules while ensuring thorough testing, as the configuration analysis automatically identifies all scenarios that need to be tested without requiring manual test case creation for each scenario.
Solution Approach 2:
The testing system serves itself by automatically extracting configurations from the software, generating the appropriate test scenarios, and executing tests without requiring extensive manual intervention. This automation maintains high development speed while ensuring comprehensive testing coverage, as the system independently handles the thoroughness aspect.
4Ease of operation
If traditional coverage metrics are used, then implementation is straightforward, but customer usage scenarios are not adequately tested
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary extraction of software configurations to build a comprehensive model of all possible customer usage scenarios before testing execution. This advance configuration analysis ensures that real-world customer scenarios are captured and tested, going beyond traditional coverage metrics that only measure code execution.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a configuration dimension to traditional coverage metrics. Instead of only measuring line and function coverage, the system incorporates configuration permutations and combinations as an additional dimension, enabling comprehensive testing of customer usage scenarios while maintaining ease of implementation through automated analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus of a novel command coverage analyzer is disclosed. Combinations of commands, options, arguments, and values of a product are extracted, customer environment and uses are considered, and a more comprehensive and accurate quality of software process and metric is provided.