Abstract: The present invention enables the modeling of plural outcomes resulting from a single stimulus, thereby allowing for automated test generation for non-deterministic software. In accordance with the present invention, a method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for testing software having a non-deterministic outcome. In accordance with the present invention, a set of rules is created, each rule having an associated stimulus, a precondition computation, and a computation procedure to produce the set of all valid outcome states. Each valid outcome state models one of several states that may result from applying the stimulus to any state which satisfies the precondition computation. Using these models, a test generation program is executed against the set of rules to recursively expand each path associated with an outcome state of a rule and outputting a list of valid possible outcomes, then selecting sequences of stimuli in accordance with coverage goals set by the test engineer.

Abstract: A test coverage tool provides output that identifies differences between the actual coverage provided by a test suite run on a program under test and the coverage criteria (e.g., the coverage criteria required by the test/development team management). The output from the test coverage tool is generated in the same language that was used to write the coverage criteria that are input to an automated test generator to create the test cases which form the test suite. As a result, the output from the coverage tool can be input back into the automated test generator to cause the generator to revise the test cases to correct the inadequacies. This allows iterative refinement of the test suite automatically, enabling automated test generation to be more effectively and efficiently used with more complex software and more complex test generation inputs.

Abstract: A system for automatic generation of test programs employs test generation foci linked to a finite state machine behavioral model of a software application under test to produce abstract test suites that are executed by an execution engine. The foci include directive expressions that tag coverage variables of the behavioral model. The execution engine operates until the tagged coverage variables have assumed all their possible values. Both the behavioral models and the foci are archivable and can be retrieved and reused independently.

Abstract: A method for solving a constraint satisfaction problem includes receiving a set of variables having respective input domains and a set of relations among the variables, and building a network of one or more hyper-arcs representative of the set of relations, each hyper-arc corresponding to one of the relations and linking nodes in the network corresponding to the variables that are subject to the relation. For each of the hyper-arcs, the variables are assembled in a hierarchy based on the relation corresponding to the hyper-arc. The input domains of the variables in the hierarchy are reduced, so as to determine respective output domains of the variables that are consistent with the relations.

Abstract: The invention relates to an interactive voice communication method and system for communicating with personalities. Any sort of real or authored personality, including but not limited to celebrities, characters, and service personnel types, may be the object of the interaction provided by the invention. The system and method of the invention permits communication between a user and the personality, i.e., between a fan of a celebrity and the celebrity, or between a consumer and a virtual service-person, via telephone, audio, video, CD, DVD, Internet, stand-alone kiosks and wireless devices through use of voice response technology including speech recognition and natural language software.

Abstract: A method and system for displaying a resource schedule containing a plurality of objects in an N-level multiple hierarchy all of which objects are subject to a common dependency, comprising the steps of allocating different non-overlapping areas of a display device for each level of the resource schedules, and graphically displaying each level of the resource schedule in the respective area of the display device in synchronized relationship on a common axis representative of the common dependency. Editing tools are provided for allowing objects of the same level to be interchanged, objects of a given level i (where i<N) to be inserted into an object of a higher level (i+1), and objects of a given level i (where i>1) to be disassembled into an object of a lower level (i−1). The method and system are particularly suited for constructing and editing crew pairings for airlines and allow simple and efficient on-line, interactive manipulation of resources.