The RAPTOR tool will provide an effective mechanism for building correct software by: a) simplifying the process of defining relationships between application objects, b) providing automated mechanisms for test scenario generation and regression testing, and c) reducing the risks of system modifications that inadvertently violate earlier design decisions. RAPTOR is built on top of an underlying spreadsheet engine that associates object attributes with cells in a spreadsheet. RAPTORÕs attribute-based ÒassertionsÓ and Test Generator facilitate the automation of program verification and regression testing, and its Òliving memoryÓ feature provides a mechanism for recording object-specific design decisions and rationale for automatic notification should a future developer attempt to override the design decision. Its Relationship Builder provides an intuitive, interactive approach for defining complex object-to-object relationships. The proposed Phase I effort focuses on developing effective approaches for RAPTOR assertions, living memory, automatic test script generation, triggering of the spreadsheet engine, the addition of new RAPTOR objects, and relationship definitions at the object class-level as well as the object instance level. A related Phase II effort would complete the features for a full commercial product, focusing particularly on RAPTOR as an integrated adjunct to other commercial GUI builders.Commercial Applications:The RAPTOR tool will provide software development organizations with a powerful adjunct to existing need software development tools, allowing much more of the development of applications to be done without the for direct programming, and by providing efficient, effective, and integrated tools for automatic verification and regression testing, thus contributing significantly to the ability to develop correct safety-critical and mission- critical applications. RAPTOR will be easily integrated with commercial GUI builders, adding substantial new capability for a large number of installed users of these tools.
