Force Level Automated Certification of Downward Compatible Baseline Software

Software development usually involves the combination, adaptation and modification of proven software routines and code-sets in an iterative fashion. During this process, regression testing is performed to verify that the established functionality of the constituent codes is not lost and that latent defects (bugs) are not introduced. For complex software development projects, regression testing is an important and frequently used process. It is also expensive and inaccurate, being largely based on a subjective approach which depends on the experience and intuition of the software developer and QA personnel. The Software Change Impact Analysis Tool (SCIAT), developed by Trident Systems Inc., automatically tracks and analyzes the effects of changes to software, thereby providing an objective approach to identifying locations where regression testing should focus. This improves both the efficiency and accuracy of the regression testing. On this effort SCIAT will be updated to automatically identify the impacted paths through the software between builds, compare the paths to the code executed by each test, and defines the updates to the regression tests, at each level of testing and aggregated across all levels. This will allow SCIAT to be used to continuously and automatically evolve and update the regression test strategy.