Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Mainframe Batch Testing (USPTO 10,521,337)

2020 JAN 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Norton, Joseph W. (Normal, IL); Titlow, James D. (Bloomington, IL); Holloway, Matthew W. (Marietta, GA); Tolonen, Amanda J. (Downs, IL); Kongara, Venkata R. (Fairview, TX); Wheeler, Timothy J. (Normal, IL), filed on January 12, 2018, was published online on January 13, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,521,337 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Mainframe batch systems are commonly utilized by companies to automatically process large volumes of tasks at once. These systems enable such companies to maximize the usage of their computer resources resulting in more efficient and cheaper processing of data. For example, an insurance provider may batch process the creation or modification of policies that occurred throughout a day during overnight processing.

“However, as a company evolves and develops new and updated products and services, there is a need for companies to update their mainframe batch systems to facilitate the processing of these new and updated products and services. Updating these systems may present various obstacles, such as obstacles related to testing and/or service disruptions.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, detect errors in computer system upgrades in a test environment using property-based validation testing without impacting the production environment. For instance, changes and/or updates to a mainframe batch system may be facilitated by testing the changes and/or updates in a test environment. As a result, accidental disruption to the functionality currently provided by the mainframe batch system may be alleviated. In one aspect, a method implemented in a test computer environment is provided. The test computer environment may replicate a production computer environment in a first state. The method may include (1) receiving, via a computer network, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the FSM that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; (2) validating, via one or more particularly programmed processors, that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; (3) processing, via the one or more processors, the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the FSM to enter a second state; (4) validating, via the one or more processors, that corresponding data fields of the second state of the FSM adheres to the first set of properties under test; and/or (5) based upon the validations, generating, via the one or more processors, an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a system may be provided. The system may include (i) a communication module adapted to communicate data; (ii) a finite-state machine (FSM), wherein an initial state of the FSM replicates a state of a production computer component; (iii) a memory adapted to store non-transitory computer executable instructions; and/or (iv) one or more particularly programmed processors adapted to interface with the communication module, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the system to (1) receive, via the communication modules, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the FSM that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; (2) validate that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; (3) process the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the FSM to enter a second state; (4) validate that corresponding data fields of the second state of the FSM adheres to the first set of properties under test; and (5) based upon the validations, generate an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid. The system may include additional, less, or alternate components and functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In still another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions may be provided. When executed, the instructions may cause one or more particularly programmed processors to (1) receive, via a computer network, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to a finite-state machine are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the finite-state machine that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; (2) validate, by the one or more processors, that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; (3) process, by the one or more processors, the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the finite-state machine to enter a new state; (4) validate, by the one or more processors, that corresponding data fields of the new state of the finite-state machine adheres to the first set of properties under test; and (5) based upon the validations, generate, by the one or more processors, an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the new state of the finite-state machine are valid. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may include additional, fewer, or alternate instructions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A method implemented in a test computer environment, wherein the test computer environment contains a finite-state machine (FSM) that replicates a production computer environment in a first state, the method comprising: receiving, via a computer network, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the FSM that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; validating, via one or more particularly programmed processors, that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; processing, via the one or more processors, the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the FSM to enter a second state; validating, via the one or more processors, that corresponding data fields of the second state of the FSM adheres to the first set of properties under test; and based upon the validations, generating, via the one or more processors, an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, via the computer network, a second set of batch data, wherein the second set of batch data is designed to determine whether a second set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the FSM is in the second state when receiving the second set of batch data.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of batch data includes at least one of: a request to add a new insurance product, a request to modify an existing insurance product, a request to terminate an existing insurance product, and a request to process a claim for corresponding to an insurance product.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein validating the first set of batch data further comprises: confirming, via the one or more processors, that properly formatted data fields contained within the first set of batch data contain values within an expected range of values.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data fields include at least one of: an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, and a date corresponding to the transaction request.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein validating that the corresponding data fields of the second state adhere to the first set of properties under test further comprises: determining, via the one or more processors, an allowable range of values required by the first set of properties; and confirming, via the one or more processors, that the corresponding data fields of the second state are within the allowable range of values.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the allowable range of values includes at least one of: a set of identifiers corresponding to people associated with an insurance product, a set of identifiers corresponding to vehicles associated with an insurance product, a set of identifiers corresponding to properties associated with an insurance product, a range of allowable policy numbers, or true or false.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the indications of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid further comprises: when the first set of batch data or the second state is invalid, generating, via the one or more processors, an indication identifying the invalid data field and the corresponding property under test that formed the basis of invalidity; and when the first set of batch data and the second state are valid, generating, via the one or more processors, an indication of a successful validation of the first set of properties.

“10. A system comprising: a communication module adapted to communicate data; a finite-state machine (FSM), wherein an initial state of the FSM replicates a state of a production computer component; a memory adapted to store non-transitory computer executable instructions; and one or more particularly programmed processors adapted to interface with the communication module, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the system to: receive, via the communication modules, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the FSM that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; validate that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; process the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the FSM to enter a second state; validate that corresponding data fields of the second state of the FSM adheres to the first set of properties under test; and based upon the validations, generate an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the system to: receive, via the communication module, a second set of batch data, wherein the second set of batch data is designed to determine whether a second set of properties corresponding to the FSM are properly implemented.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the FSM is in the second state when receiving the second set of batch data.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first set of batch data includes at least one of: a request to add a new insurance product, a request to modify an existing insurance product, a request to terminate an existing insurance product, and a request to process a claim for corresponding to an insurance product.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein to validate the first set of batch data, the instructions, when executed, cause the system to: confirm that properly formatted data fields contained within the first set of batch data contain values within an expected range of values.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data fields include at least one of: an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, and a date corresponding to the transaction request.

“16. The system of claim 10, wherein to validate that the corresponding data fields of the second state adhere to the first set of properties under test, the instructions, when executed, cause the system to: determine an allowable range of values required by the first set of properties; and confirm that the corresponding data fields of the second state are within the allowable range of values.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the allowable range of values includes at least one of: a set of identifiers corresponding to people associated with an insurance product, a set of identifiers corresponding to vehicles associated with an insurance product, a set of identifiers corresponding to properties associated with an insurance product, a range of allowable policy numbers, or true or false.

“18. The system of claim 10, wherein to generate the indications of whether the first set of batch data and the second state of the FSM are valid, the instructions, when executed, cause the system to: when the first set of batch data or the second state is invalid, generate, an indication identifying the invalid data field and the corresponding property under test that formed the basis of invalidity; and when the first set of batch data and the second state are valid, generate an indication of a successful validation of the first set of properties.

“19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions, that when executed cause one or more particularly programmed processors to receive, via a computer network, a first set of batch data, wherein the first set of batch data is designed to determine whether a first set of properties corresponding to a finite-state machine are properly implemented, wherein each property is a description of the finite-state machine that should be true in a properly implemented computer environment; validate, by the one or more processors, that data contained in the first set of batch data is in a valid format by confirming any data field contained within the first set of batch data is in a proper format for the corresponding data field, wherein the data fields include at least one of an insurance policy number, a claim identification number, a person associated with an insurance policy, a property owned by a policyholder, a vehicle owned by a policyholder, or a date corresponding to a transaction request; process, by the one or more processors, the first set of batch data, wherein the processing of the first set of batch data causes the finite-state machine to enter a new state; validate, by the one or more processors, that corresponding data fields of the new state of the finite-state machine adheres to the first set of properties under test; and based upon the validations, generate, by the one or more processors, an indication of whether the first set of batch data and the new state of the finite-state machine are valid.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Norton, Joseph W.; Titlow, James D.; Holloway, Matthew W.; Tolonen, Amanda J.; Kongara, Venkata R.; Wheeler, Timothy J. Systems And Methods For Mainframe Batch Testing. U.S. Patent Number 10,521,337, filed January 12, 2018, and published online on January 13, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,521,337.PN.&OS=PN/10,521,337RS=PN/10,521,337

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