System and method for generating year 2000 test cases

An innovative rule based method and system for creating test cases for the Year 2000 compliance testing of software systems is described. Using the method and system of the present invention, the user will first input information as rules relating to the business logic of the system. After obtaining the business logic, the system will transform input test cases into output test cases for the Year 2000 compliance testing. The term test cases, used in a broad sense here, refer to regression test cases written in any test automation languages, archive of test input/output data files, or snap shots of transactions captured using a recording tool. The system operates by first parsing the input files and based upon the business logic, it identifies date, time, or duration dependent variables or constants ("date dependent fields" collectively) in the input test cases. The system then substitutes risky dates, time, or duration for these fields in a manner which preserves the business logic. Risky values here refer to values that are important for the Year 2000 compliance testing-a set of values which may be user-defined. The system provides several modes of generation of output test cases depending upon the users' needs. The system can be retrofitted to deal with generation of test cases for any one time change to a software system. For example, when seven digits telephone numbers are replaced by ten digit numbers or various currencies are replaced by a single currency unit and so forth.