Test Data Management via Transaction Log Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for verifying business process changes are expensive, time-consuming, and often require tradeoffs between reliability and cost/time, with manual testing being inefficient and automated testing being costly to generate and maintain.
Innovation Solution
A method that generates test content for a test system from executed transaction data, allowing the test system to access and utilize transaction data as test data, either unmodified or modified, to simulate business process transactions and evaluate correct execution and database updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual testing is used to verify business process changes, then testing can be performed with human judgment and flexibility, but the process becomes very time consuming and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically generating test cases from actual business process executions before formal testing begins. Test data is extracted from real transaction logs and prepared in advance, so that when testing is needed, pre-prepared test cases are already available, eliminating the time-consuming manual test creation process while maintaining reliable validation
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of actual business process data and executions to generate test cases. Instead of manually creating test scenarios, the system copies real transaction data from the execution system and transforms it into testable formats, preserving the authenticity and reliability of test data while dramatically reducing the time and effort required compared to manual testing
2Productivity
If automated testing is used to improve quality and reduce time, then testing efficiency increases, but generating and maintaining test content becomes time consuming and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically generating test cases from its own execution data. The test system extracts test data from the execution system's transaction logs and automatically creates test cases without requiring external intervention. This self-generating capability eliminates the ongoing manual effort to create and maintain test content, allowing automated testing to sustain itself over time without accumulating maintenance burdens
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the testing function with the execution system by having the test system directly access and utilize data from the execution system's transaction logs. This integration combines data collection, test generation, and execution validation into a unified automated process, eliminating the separate manual activities of test content creation and maintenance that traditionally accompany automated testing
3Reliability
If test content is created to accurately recreate real transaction scenarios, then testing reliability improves, but the cost to generate and maintain test content increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates accurate copies of real transaction scenarios by extracting actual transaction data from the execution system's logs. These copies preserve the authentic data, sequences, and relationships of real business processes, ensuring test scenario accuracy. Because the system automatically copies and transforms this data rather than manually recreating scenarios, the time and cost to generate test content are dramatically reduced while maintaining high reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatuses enable generating test content for test system from an executed transaction of an execution system. The data resulting from the execution of the transaction in the execution system is accessed and used to generate test content for a test case. The test case can include the transaction data unmodified, or the transaction data can be modified and stored as the test content. The test system executes the test case to generate a result, and the result can be compared against what is expected based on the test content.