The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 27, 2004
Filed:
May. 18, 2001
Wu-Hon Francis Leung, Downers Grove, IL (US);
Other;
Abstract
A software tool and methods for preventing software modifications from invalidating previously passed integration test cases is provided. The software tool and methods automatically modify an integrated software subroutine to collect test data for selected units of the integrated software. The software tool and methods also generate a software test environment including a driver and one or more stubs for each selected software unit. Subsequent versions of the software unit are then stimulated by the driver and stubs using the collected test data. The responses from the new version of the software unit are compared to the responses collected from the old version. Differences between the responses of the two software version are flagged, thereby preventing software modifications on the software unit from invalidating previously passed tests. Furthermore, the software tool and methods automate the incremental integration and testing of software units whose modifications are related. The software tool and methods automatically determines the set of software units to be combined, the set of test cases to exercise and the test results that must be satisfied so that previously passed integration tests will not fail. Several methods of reducing the potentially unbounded test data to a manageable amount are also described. The test data may be used to analyze important properties of the software. The test data and test environment are useful in several different phases of software development.