JP2725490B2 - Software Bug Cause Inference Expert System - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a software bug cause inference expert system for determining the cause of a software bug that occurred during software development and maintenance of a computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art During the development and maintenance of software, it is essential to clarify the cause of a bug and correct the program, and many expert systems have been developed for this purpose. In such an expert system, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-63-41954, a program state at the time of occurrence of a bug is examined, and causes adapted to the state correspond to various states and causes in advance. It was inferred by checking if it was in a database created with the file. In this case, if there is no matching state, it is determined that inference cannot be made. Here, “conformity” means that a state indicating a bug is composed of a plurality of elements, and all of them are conformed.

[0003]

However, there are many cases where even if some of the elements are slightly different, the result of inferring that they are suitable is satisfactory. Therefore, the applicant previously filed an application in consideration of such points (Japanese Patent Application No. 2-57948). The system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-57948 requires a plurality of elements in a bug state. By dividing the element that is a condition and the element that is a sufficient condition and expanding the conformity range of the element that is a sufficient condition, the possibility of inferring the cause of the bug is expanded. However, if there is no compatible bug cause even after changing the conformance conditions, the inference has failed, and the input bug state information has been discarded. Therefore, the input, that is, the generated bug information is discarded, and no consideration is given to using this as new knowledge.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a software bug cause inference expert system capable of effectively utilizing the state information of a bug at the time of inference failure to improve the inference ability of the system.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a man-machine unit for inputting state information at the time of occurrence of a software bug, a knowledge base unit storing information for inferring the cause of the bug, and a knowledge base unit. A software bug cause inference expert system comprising: an inference engine for inferring a bug that conforms to the state information input from the man-machine unit with reference to the part; An intermediate knowledge file creator for editing the current state information input from the man-machine unit when it cannot be inferred to create an intermediate knowledge file, and an intermediate knowledge file for storing the intermediate knowledge file Section and the information of the intermediate knowledge file section when the cause of the bug is found, and the bug information input from the man-machine section at that time. In the software bug cause inference expert system, which is provided with a knowledge base part automatic addition processing part for creating knowledge and automatically adding the knowledge base to the knowledge base, when the inference by the inference engine part is not possible A condition changing unit for changing a condition relating to the state information in the knowledge base in accordance with the state information of the bug at that time, and a program configuration information unit storing information to be used in the changing unit. When inference cannot be performed by the inference engine unit, the process of changing the knowledge base by the condition changing unit and then performing inference by the inference engine unit is repeated a predetermined number of times, and when inference is not possible during the repetition. A software bug source, wherein the intermediate knowledge file is created by the intermediate knowledge file creating unit. It discloses an inference expert system.

[0006]

When the inference by the inference engine is not possible, a condition changing unit for changing a condition relating to state information in the knowledge base in accordance with the state information of the bug at that time; A predetermined number of processes are performed by adding the program configuration information section storing the information and performing the inference by the inference engine section after changing the knowledge base by the condition changing section when the inference cannot be performed by the inference engine section. If an inference cannot be made even during the repetition, an intermediate knowledge file is created by the intermediate knowledge file creating unit.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to embodiments. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, in which a man-machine unit 2 for inputting bug state information, a knowledge base unit 4 for storing knowledge for inferring the cause of a bug,
An inference engine unit 3 for inferring a cause of a bug matching the status information of the bug input by the man-machine unit 2 based on the knowledge base unit 4, a matching condition changing unit 5 for changing a matching condition of the knowledge base 4, a matching condition When a suitable bug cause cannot be inferred by the program configuration information unit 6 storing the knowledge for change and the inference engine unit 3, information of the intermediate knowledge file unit 9 is obtained from the bug state information input by the man-machine unit 2. A new knowledge based on the information of the intermediate knowledge file unit 9 and the bug cause input via the man-machine unit 2 when the cause of the bug is identified,
Knowledge base automatic addition processing unit 7 stored in knowledge base unit 4
It consists of.

FIG. 2 shows the contents of a frame in the knowledge base unit 4 of the present embodiment. In the following, it is assumed that the software for inferring the cause of the bug is that of the computer system for plant control. A frame is a knowledge base of software bug information that has occurred in the past in a similar computer system, and the state information at the time of the bug occurrence is analyzed into the following six elements for each bug that occurred. It is. 1. 1. where the bug phenomenon occurred; 2. Timing of bug occurrence 1, 3 3. Bug occurrence timing 2 (element that complements timing 1); Bug occurrence location 1,5. 5. Bug occurrence location 2 (detailed element of location 1), The state where the bug occurred. For example, the bug No. 1 means that the value of the electric energy was incorrect in the print items of the daily report that was automatically printed at the time of daily change to T / W, and the cause of the bug at that time was that "the daily report calculation processing program was defective." Is shown.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the overall operation of the present embodiment. If a bug occurs during software development or maintenance, the system is started up first and then step 1 is started.
At 0, information on the "bug occurrence location" which is one of the status information of the generated bug is input from the man-machine unit 2. This is input by referring to the frame of the knowledge base unit 4 shown in FIG. 2 and selecting from the elements stored in the “location” in the frame. Then step 2
At "0", "timing 1 at which a bug occurred" is input.
Here, similarly to the previous step 10, selection is made from “timing 1” in the frame, but only “timing 1” corresponding to “location” in step 10 is selectable. For example, in the example of FIG. 2, when “TXW” is selected in “location”, “timing 1” is selected from two types of “automatic printing” and “when output is requested”. Hereinafter, steps 30 to 60 are the same as step 10 in FIG.
Refer to the frame and input in the form of selection. When all the elements of the state information at the time of the occurrence of the bug have been input in this manner, in step 70, the inference engine unit 3 refers to the knowledge base unit 4 indicating the matching condition of each element. The cause of the bug is inferred by the element matching condition rule. The matching conditions are shown in FIG. The matching condition is provided for each element. Each element of the state information of the bug input in steps 10 to 60 is compared with all the elements of the bug information knowledge in the frame of the knowledge base unit 4, and the matching element is determined. look for. Then, the matching condition No. If there is bug information that satisfies all of the items 1 to 6, it is determined in step 80 that the bug information has all the elements that match, and in step 90, the bug cause corresponding to the matching information is determined in the frame of the knowledge base unit 4 in the frame. Refer to and display the cause of the bug.

Incidentally, the conventional Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-41954.
In the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-57948, if it is determined that there is no compatible bug information in Step 80, the inference failure is displayed and the process is terminated as it is. Change and continue inference. That is, when it is determined in step 80 that the bug information in which all the elements match does not correspond to the bug information knowledge in the frame,
Proceed to step 100. In this case, for example, step 10
In steps 60 to 60, enter "T / W", "automatic printing", "daily", "daily report", "frequency", "value is incorrect" as the elements of the bug status information, and only the knowledge shown in FIG. If it does not exist in the base unit 4, there is no bug information in which all the elements match in step 80. In the element of No. 1, the only one that does not match is “Point 2”. Considering that all programs that process “electric energy” and “frequency” in the automatic printing of the daily report are the same, the matching condition No. 5
It is understood that it is useful for investigating the cause of a bug even if the reason is deleted and the reason for the bug is displayed as “bad daily report calculation processing program”. As shown in FIG. 5, the conditions under which the inference can be performed even after deletion are stored in advance in the program configuration information unit 6 with the element names of the matching conditions to be deleted for each function name. In this example, up to two matching conditions that can be deleted are specified. Therefore, first, in step 100, the elements “location 1” and “timing 1” of the input bug state information
Thus, the function name is determined based on the contents of the program configuration information section 6. In the previous example, the function name is “daily report” and “automatic printing”, respectively. 1 is "daily report automatic printing". Next, in step 110, the matching condition of the deletion order 1 is deleted. In the example, the element name of the matching condition to be deleted first in “daily report automatic printing” is “location 2”. 5 will be deleted. The above-described deletion processing is performed by the matching condition changing unit 5. And step 1
Inference is made again at 20. In this example, since all the conforming conditions are satisfied, the process proceeds from step 130 to step 90, and the cause of the bug, "daily report calculation processing program failure", is displayed. If it is also determined in step 130 that there is no matching bug information, the matching condition of the deletion order 2 is deleted in step 140. And infer at step 150,
If it is determined in step 160 that there is bug information that matches all, the cause of the bug is displayed in step 90 as described above. By changing the adaptation conditions as described above, the cause of the bug can be better inferred.

However, if a bug cause that still satisfies the conforming condition cannot be found in step 160, the input bug state information is conventionally discarded as it is, and the inference is impossible (step 170). . In the present invention, such state information is temporarily stored, and when the cause of the bug is found, the cause of the bug is input, so that new knowledge is created and stored in the knowledge base, and can be used in later inference. Things. Step 16 for that
If it is determined that there is no matching condition at 0, the inferencing failure is displayed (step 170), and then at step 180 the intermediate knowledge file creator 8 reads the state information of the bug from FIG.
Is created and temporarily stored in the intermediate knowledge file unit 9. The configuration of the intermediate knowledge file unit 9 includes the number of cases of the bug status information stored at the top, and thereafter, each status information is stored for each case.

Next, when the cause of the bug is determined, the cause of the bug is input, and new knowledge is created by the automatic knowledge base processing unit 7. The flowchart is shown in FIG. 7. When the cause of the bug is found, first, in step 200, the information of the intermediate knowledge file section 9 is displayed. FIG. 8 shows a display format. The displayed contents are the number of information cases and the status information for each case. Therefore, the case number corresponding to the bug cause found this time is input in step 210, and the cause of the bug is input in step 220. And step 2
The new knowledge is stored in the case next to the last bug number in the knowledge base unit 4 shown in FIG. In the example, it is stored in bug No. 9. As described above, new knowledge can be automatically created based on the state information of a bug that was conventionally thrown away when it is impossible to infer, and can be used in later inference.

In the above embodiment, when the inference fails for the first time, the matching condition is changed and the re-inference is performed. However, the inference failure is displayed immediately after the first inference fails, and the intermediate state of the bug state is displayed. Registration in the knowledge file unit 9 can also be performed.

[0014]

According to the present invention, when it becomes impossible to infer, the state information of the bug cause is temporarily stored,
By inputting the bug cause when the cause of the bug is found, new knowledge can be automatically created, so that the knowledge base is gradually enhanced, and there is an effect that more bug causes can be inferred.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a knowledge base.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an inference operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a matching condition.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a program configuration information section.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an intermediate knowledge file unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a knowledge base automatic addition processing unit.

FIG. 8 is a display example of an intermediate knowledge information file.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Man-machine part 3 Inference engine part 4 Knowledge base part 5 Conformance condition change part 6 Program configuration information part 7 Knowledge base automatic addition processing part 8 Intermediate knowledge file creation part 9 Intermediate knowledge file part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A man-machine section for inputting state information at the time of occurrence of a software bug, a knowledge base section storing information for inferring a cause of a bug, and the man-machine section with reference to the knowledge base section. A software bug cause inference expert system having a reasoning engine for inferring a cause of a bug conforming to the state information input from the part information. The intermediate knowledge file creator for editing the current state information input from the man-machine unit to create an intermediate knowledge file, the intermediate knowledge file for storing the intermediate knowledge file, and the cause of the bug were found. Sometimes, new knowledge is created from the information in the intermediate knowledge file section and the bug information input from the man-machine section at that time. A software bug cause inference expert system, characterized in that a knowledge base unit and an automatic addition processing unit for automatically adding to the base are automatically added to the source when the inference by the inference engine unit is not possible. A condition changing unit for changing a condition relating to the state information in the knowledge base according to the information and a program configuration information unit storing information to be used in the changing unit are added, and the inference engine unit can infer. If not, the process of changing the knowledge base by the condition changing unit and then performing the inference by the inference engine unit is repeated a predetermined number of times. If the inference cannot be performed even during the repetition, the intermediate knowledge file is created. Software bug cause inference expert system characterized in that an intermediate knowledge file is created by the section