Patent Issued for Methods and systems for an intelligent technical debt helper bot (USPTO 11971804): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 MAY 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Pandurangarao, Anil Kumar (Northbrook, IL, US), filed on June 15, 2021, was published online on April 30, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11971804, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In the course of software development, a codebase may incur technical debt. Such technical debt may be indicative of an implied cost of additional work in software development due to, for example, a developer implementing quick, short-term solutions to issues in the codebase rather than solutions that are more effective in the long term. If technical debt is not properly addressed, the level of technical debt in the codebase may compound upon further development of the codebase, resulting in an increased amount of additional work and cost to resolve the issues.

“However, tasking a developer with tracking and addressing technical debt can slow the software development cycle, and the developer may miss addressing technical debt awaiting resolution. Further, if the developer does not properly address the technical debt, more technical debt may accrue. Therefore, a need exists for methods and systems to effectively reduce or eliminate technical debt.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “According to the subject matter of the present disclosure, an intelligent technical debt helper bot system may include an artificial intelligence neural network model, one or more processors, one or more memory components communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and the artificial intelligence neural network model, and machine-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory components. The machine-readable instructions may cause the one or more processors to receive a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code and determine whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold. The machine-readable instructions may also cause the one or more processors to generate, using the artificial intelligence neural network model and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold.

“In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, an intelligent technical debt helper bot system may include an artificial intelligence neural network model, one or more processors, one or more memory components communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and the artificial intelligence neural network model, and machine-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory components. The machine-readable instructions may cause the one or more processors to perform receive a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code and determine whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold. The machine-readable instructions may also cause the one or more processors to generate, using the artificial intelligence neural network model and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold, wherein the automated code recommendation comprises one or more recommendations to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof to reduce the level of technical debt, eliminate the technical debt, or combinations thereof. The machine-readable instructions may further cause the one or more processors to train the artificial intelligence neural network model using machine learning based on the automated code recommendation, acceptance or rejection of the automated code recommendation, or combinations thereof.

“In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, an intelligent technical debt helper method may include receiving, via a processor, a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code and determining, via the processor, whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold. The method may also include generating, using an artificial intelligence neural network model communicatively coupled to the processor and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold.

“Although the concepts of the present disclosure are described herein with primary reference to technical debt, it is contemplated that the concepts will enjoy applicability to any software development tracking and resolution platforms. For example, and not by way of limitation, it is contemplated that the concepts of the present disclosure will enjoy applicability to coding and codebase development platforms.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An intelligent technical debt helper bot system, comprising: an artificial intelligence neural network model; one or more processors; one or more memory components communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and the artificial intelligence neural network model; and machine-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory components that cause the one or more processors to perform at least the following: receive a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code; determine whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold; and generate, using the artificial intelligence neural network model and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold, wherein the artificial intelligence neural network model is trained to identify forms of computer program code that contribute to increases in the level of technical debt and generate the automated code recommendation learned from one or more sets of computer program code labeled with a corresponding technical debt.

“2. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 1, wherein the automated code recommendation comprises one or more recommendations to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof to reduce the level of technical debt, eliminate the technical debt, or combinations thereof.

“3. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 2, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: implement the automated code recommendation as an implemented automated code recommendation; and update the level of technical debt based on the implemented automated code recommendation.

“4. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 1, wherein the artificial intelligence neural network model is trained on a set of predetermined coding rules, a set of computer program code having zero technical debt, historical technical debt data, or combinations thereof.

“5. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: generate a notice to a user that the automated code recommendation should be used to reduce the level of technical debt.

“6. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 5, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: display a prompt for approval by the user on a graphical user interface to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof based on the automated code recommendation and the notice.

“7. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: train the artificial intelligence neural network model using machine learning based on the automated code recommendation, acceptance or rejection of the automated code recommendation, or combinations thereof.

“8. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: determine a user change to the computer program code; determine, using the artificial intelligence neural network model, whether the user change contributes to increasing the level of technical debt; and prevent a user from implementing the user change comprising re-arranging the computer program code, adding to the computer program code, removing from the computer program code, or combinations thereof when the user change contributes to increasing the level of technical debt.

“9. An intelligent technical debt helper bot system, comprising: an artificial intelligence neural network model; one or more processors; one or more memory components communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and the artificial intelligence neural network model; and machine-readable instructions stored in the one or more memory components that cause the one or more processors to perform at least the following: receive a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code; determine whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold; generate, using the artificial intelligence neural network model and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold, wherein the automated code recommendation comprises one or more recommendations to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof to reduce the level of technical debt, eliminate the technical debt, or combinations thereof; and train the artificial intelligence neural network model, wherein training the artificial intelligence neural network model comprises learning to identify forms of computer program code that contribute to increases in the level of technical debt and generate the automated code recommendation from one or more sets of computer program code labeled with a corresponding technical debt.

“10. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 9, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: implement the automated code recommendation as an implemented automated code recommendation; and update the level of technical debt based on the implemented automated code recommendation.

“11. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 9, wherein the artificial intelligence neural network model is trained on a set of predetermined coding rules, a set of computer program code comprises zero technical debt, historical technical debt data, or combinations thereof.

“12. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 9, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: generate a notice to a user that the automated code recommendation should be used to reduce the level of technical debt.

“13. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 12, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: display a prompt for approval by the user on a graphical user interface to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof based on the automated code recommendation and the notice.

“14. The intelligent technical debt helper bot system of claim 9, wherein the machine-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: determine a user change to the computer program code; determine, using the artificial intelligence neural network model, whether the user change contributes to increasing the level of technical debt; and prevent a user from implementing the user change comprising re-arranging the computer program code, adding to the computer program code, removing from the computer program code, or combinations thereof when the user change contributes to increasing the level of technical debt.

“15. An intelligent technical debt helper method, comprising: receiving, via a processor, a level of technical debt associated with a technical debt of a computer program code; determining, via the processor, whether the level of technical debt is greater than a technical debt threshold; generating, using an artificial intelligence neural network model communicatively coupled to the processor and based on the computer program code, an automated code recommendation to address the technical debt of the computer program code when the level of technical debt is greater than the technical debt threshold, wherein the artificial intelligence neural network model is trained to identify forms of computer program code that contribute to increases in the level of technical debt and generate the automated code recommendation learned from one or more sets of computer program code labeled with a corresponding technical debt.

“16. The intelligent technical debt helper method of claim 15, wherein the automated code recommendation comprises one or more recommendations to re-arrange the computer program code, add to the computer program code, remove from the computer program code, or combinations thereof to reduce the level of technical debt, eliminate the technical debt, or combinations thereof.

“17. The intelligent technical debt helper method of claim 16, further comprising: implementing the automated code recommendation as an implemented automated code recommendation; and updating the level of technical debt based on the implemented automated code recommendation.

“18. The intelligent technical debt helper method of claim 15, wherein the artificial intelligence neural network model is trained on a set of predetermined coding rules, a set of computer program code comprises zero technical debt, historical technical debt data, or combinations thereof.

“19. The intelligent technical debt helper method of claim 15, further comprising: training the artificial intelligence neural network model using machine learning based on the automated code recommendation, acceptance or rejection of the automated code recommendation, or combinations thereof.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Pandurangarao, Anil Kumar. Methods and systems for an intelligent technical debt helper bot. U.S. Patent Number 11971804, filed June 15, 2021, and published online on April 30, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11971804)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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