In some embodiments, the knowledge base includes one or more knowledge entries about the system, and each of these knowledge entries may include an identification number, a name, a label, an attribute, a description, or an annotation. Taking a storage system as an example, a knowledge entry corresponding to a storage device A may include the identification number of “PSO0001004,” the name of “storage device A,” the label of “storage device A,” the attribute of “resource,” the description of “indicating physical hardware,” and the annotation of “instance of “‘PSO00000001’,” where the annotation may indicate that the instance knowledge entry “PSO0001004” is an instance of the entity knowledge entry “PSO00000001.” In the textual presentation pattern of the knowledge entries in the knowledge base, the plurality of knowledge entries may be arranged based on the order of the identification numbers. Hereinafter, for ease of understanding, a storage system will be illustrated as an example of a product to be tested. It should be understood that this is not limiting and that test case generation according to embodiments of the present disclosure may also be performed for other different systems, such as a network system.

In some embodiments, these knowledge entries may include, but are not limited to, an entity knowledge entry, an instance knowledge entry, a session knowledge entry, an action knowledge entry, a condition knowledge entry, or a state knowledge entry, and the individual knowledge entries may have an associative relationship with each other. Various types of knowledge entries in the knowledge base and the associative relationships among them will be described below with reference to FIG. 4A.

FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating knowledge entries in a knowledge base in a graphical presentation model according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 4A, the knowledge base for the storage system may include a plurality of knowledge entries. Knowledge entries 401 and 402 may be entity knowledge entries corresponding to a storage device and a volume, respectively. Knowledge entries 403 and 404 may be instance knowledge entries corresponding to the entity knowledge entry 402. For example, the instance knowledge entry 403 indicates a storage device B (also referred to as a cluster B) serving as a data backup end, while the instance knowledge entry 404 indicates a storage device A (also referred to as storage device A) serving as a data generation end. Knowledge entries 405 and 406 may be session knowledge entries. For example, the synchronization session knowledge entry 406 is configured to perform data synchronization from the instance knowledge entry 403 to the instance knowledge entry 404, and the monitoring session knowledge entry 405 is configured to monitor that synchronization process. Knowledge entries 409 and 410 may be action knowledge entries corresponding to the monitoring session knowledge entry 405, such as the remove-monitor-server action knowledge entry 409 and the add-monitor-server action knowledge entry 410, which have execution conditions, respectively, as shown in FIG. 4A. Knowledge entries 407 and 408 may be condition knowledge entries corresponding to the action knowledge entries 409 and 410, respectively, such as the monitored session condition knowledge entry 407 and the not-yet-monitored session condition knowledge entry 408. Subsequent actions are allowed to be executed only if the corresponding conditions are satisfied. In addition, knowledge entries 411 to 416 are state knowledge entries indicating states of the corresponding knowledge entries.

The respective knowledge entries may have an associative relationship with each other. In some embodiments, the associative relationship may include, but is not limited to, a sequential relationship, a conditional relationship, a causal relationship, and the like. By way of illustration but not limitation, the monitoring session knowledge entry 405 is arranged before the synchronization session knowledge entry 406 based on a sequential relationship between the monitoring session knowledge entry 405 and the synchronization session knowledge entry 406. The monitored action knowledge entry is arranged after the not-yet-monitored condition knowledge entry based on a conditional relationship between the add-monitor-server action knowledge entry 410 (also referred to as monitoring action knowledge entry for short) and the not-yet-monitored session condition knowledge entry 408 (also referred to as not-yet-monitored condition knowledge entry for short). In addition, the monitoring session knowledge entry 405 is arranged before a good session condition knowledge entry 412 based on a causal relationship between the monitoring session knowledge entry 405 and the good session condition knowledge entry 412. Furthermore, the associative relationship is illustrative and not exhaustive, which may further include, for example, an exclusive relationship between a monitoring enabled state knowledge entry 413 and a monitoring disabled state knowledge entry 414, a coordinating relationship between the storage device indicated by instance knowledge entry 403 and the storage device indicated by instance knowledge entry 404, and the like.

Returning to FIG. 3, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, in the knowledge base updating sub-process 320, updated knowledge corresponding to the developed target function may be determined in the knowledge base. In response to the target function being developed, the knowledge base will synchronize such a change to the system and store the updated knowledge corresponding to the change. For example, an updated knowledge entry indicating the updated knowledge may be generated based on the additional part in the development document.

To determine which part of the current knowledge in the knowledge base for the system is the updated knowledge, in some embodiments, a current knowledge entry for the system may be compared with a historical knowledge entry before the target function is developed, and a difference between the current knowledge entry and the historical knowledge entry may be identified as the updated knowledge entry. The knowledge entries in the knowledge base may be recorded at a predetermined cycle.

FIG. 4B is a diagram illustrating updated knowledge entries corresponding to developed target functions according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The updated knowledge entry may be identified based on the difference between the knowledge entries before and after the target function is developed. As shown in FIG. 4B, a subset 418 and a subset 420 in the knowledge entries for the system are identified as updated knowledge entries corresponding to the developed target function, which means that the knowledge entries in the subsets 418 and 420 do not exist in the knowledge base for the system before the target function is developed.

Returning to FIG. 3, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, in the test path identification sub-process 330, one or more test paths are identified in the knowledge base for the system from the updated knowledge entries. In some embodiments, a predetermined number of knowledge entries associated with an updated knowledge entry in the current knowledge entries for the system may be identified upstream and downstream of the updated knowledge entry, for example, another knowledge entry that will inevitably be performed when one updated knowledge entry is performed, or some other knowledge entries with a relatively high degree of association to some updated knowledge entries. Here, the predetermined number is indicated by the predetermined test range. In other words, as needed, several knowledge entries upstream or downstream of a particular updated knowledge entry can be selected, or it can also go back to its starting and ending points. In addition, based on the associative relationship (e.g., the sequential relationship, the conditional relationship, and the causal relationship) between the identified updated knowledge entries and their associated knowledge entries, the knowledge entries can be adjusted to form the corresponding test paths, e.g., by clarifying the sequence between them.