Patent ID: 6880109

Claim:
A method providing a stand-alone testing environment for a test object functional element of a computer system, said test object functional element having a plurality of interfaces for coupling with other elements of said computer system, said interfaces being of a type which provide communication between functional elements and which employ a predetermined interface protocol for inter-processing communication whose mode of operation involves a shared memory such that information communicated through said interfaces is passed between said functional elements by a process of notifying the addressed functional element that information is ready and providing the addressed functional element with its location in said shared memory, wherein said predetermined interface protocol is further of a type in which the location of information is distributed among a set of at least two hierarchical levels of a database formed in association with said shared memory, said hierarchical levels being organized by degree of generality of functional interface task information to be stored therein, said method comprising: providing a computerized dialog to enable a user to create an input data file for said test object functional element in a form for subsequently being stored in an identifiable location in said shared memory; prompting a user for at least one functional element interface task which has been previously developed utilizing said stand alone testing environment and which is of form compliant with said predetermined interface protocol and which is stored with its identifiable location in said shared memory; starting said at least one functional element interface task utilizing said computer dialog created input data file; monitoring said plurality of interfaces; and creating a test case generation file by providing the user with a corresponding set of task creation options related to said at least one functional element interface task individually operative with a degree of generality of functional task information that is to be stored in a corresponding individual level of said set of at least two hierarchical levels of said database.