By using Application Mining tools you can understand what an application does and how it works quicker. Your upstart time will be reduced and you can address the correct questions and tests in an early stage. As a bonus you can get Automated test case monitoring.

Data Mining became a recognized concept in the 1990s, and in the 2000s Application Mining was introduced, a field that has been growing these last couple of years. Application Mining has primarily been used to analyze source code in management and development, but there are great gains to be had in the areas concerning quality and testing. The methods and work routines are not dependent on environment or language.

ResourceMiner is an Application Mining tool provided by Sogeti that helps in the analysis and verification of source code from over 30 different programing languages and dialects. More languages are continuously being added.

ResourceMiner – the tool of the testers

It is rather unusual for testers to possess a deeper knowledge of the systems they are testing. Different kinds of applications or systems experts are needed to answer various questions. These experts tend to be important in other areas as well, and are therefore difficult to take time from. With the help of ResourceMiner the testers themselves can answer many of these questions and thereby move ahead quicker, while the experts can devote their precious time to other and more difficult matters.

Common questions from the testers are: 

• Which input files must be prepared to run the batch job?
• What data will be affected?
• Which batches/functions can be run to test underlying logic?
• Which functions can be used to prepare test data?
• Which other systems will influence the test cases? What has to be simulated or stubbed?
• Where will the results from this test end up?
• Which functions can be used to verify the result?

These questions are examples of what can be answered by a few simple clicks in ResourceMiner.

The tool can also be used for identifying where an error is located and thereby simplify corrections. With a few mouse clicks you can trace the flow of the test case through the code, and point out the module or line of code responsible for the error. This makes the communication between testers and developers much easier and more efficient.

Benefits as early as during installation

The benefits of ResourceMiner start to show already during installation. In the loading phase an inventory is made and all source code is quality assured. This means that all source code without references (dead code) will be identified and all links in the source code will be verified.

Better accuracy in test cases

Imagine that a newly developed part within an application is about to be tested. In this case it could be interesting to quickly get requirements for the test case that is to be created. By a few simple mouse clicks you can get the all the requirements you need for the test data. Limits for specific values, different parameters and which flow that is quickest to reach the interesting part are also identified.

By studying how the planned test cases cover the amount of code to be tested, changes in the test cases can be made in time. ResourceMiner can help present how test cases handle the different routes through the mass of code. Maybe several test cases use the same flow through the code? Or are there flows that none of the test cases cover?

A ranking of the tests can be a good way to make sure that the correct things are tested first. Maybe starting points in the code that several of the  flows use should be tested first, or are you interested in picking out the parts of the code that most flows can pass, and rank the test cases based on that knowledge? Make sure to test the “correct” things first to find the most serious errors first.

Automated test case monitoring

Are there several automated regression tests that are being run on a regular basis? Has some automated test cases ever stopped working because of an update or other? Did no one inform you that the input field was replaced by a drop-down, or that it was removed? Did you only have to “take care of” the automated test cases before deployment?

What if you had already been informed a week ago that the input fields were changed? Or better yet – what if automatic checks were performed to look for changes that affect the automated tests?

With the help of ResourceMiner you can monitor the relevance of the test cases. The principle is relatively simple, and can also be automated. An evaluation can be performed every night to check if something that can affect the execution of the test cases has been changed.

When changes that can influence the relevance of the test case has been detected a report can automatically be added to the incident management system, or e-mails be sent to the parties concerned. The one responsible can then in time adjust the automated test cases before execution.

We have experience of this, for example from Försäkringskassan (Social security board of Sweden), where the core of the social insurance systems are monitored with the help of ResourceMiner.

Why Sogeti and ResourceMiner?

Sogeti has great expertise in the areas of test and systems development and we can be found close to you in 21 cities all around Sweden. We measure customer satisfaction before, during and after each assignment to make sure that you are satisfied with our cooperation. We have been developing the ResourceMiner solution with several of our customers for a period of 10 years. The tool has been used in both short and long assignments. Today it is used to analyze over 30 million lines of code daily with several of our customers.

Experience from the organisations using ResourceMiner is that the solution shortens the amount of time required to get started with new applications by 10-25 percent, and that the time used for error and change analysis can be reduced by as much as 75 percent.