Diagnosis of test failures in software programs

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• receive and store a plurality of defect reports associated with a software program, wherein each defect report documents a previously discovered defect in the software program;
• test the software program in a test environment that comprises an operating system executing upon a computer, and a software development platform, wherein the software program has a plurality of attributes each associated with at least one of the operating system, the computer, and the software development platform;
• and
• responsive to detecting a given test failure of the software program while testing the software program:
• eliminate, based on attributes selected by the defect reports from the plurality of attributes, one or more of the defect reports from the plurality of defect reports, wherein at least one of the selected attributes is retrieved from the test environment during the determination by invoking a provider script that is specified by one of the defect reports, and wherein eliminating one or more of the defect reports from the plurality of defect reports comprises:
• automatically gathering one or more of the plurality of attributes from the test environment;
• and
• determining, based on at least an automatically gathered attribute selected by a given defect report from the automatically gathered attributes, that a given previously discovered defect, which is documented by the given defect report, did not cause the test failure and eliminating the given defect report from the plurality of defect reports;
• and
• associate the test failure with a defect report that remains after the one or more eliminations.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving and storing a plurality of defect reports associated with a software program, wherein each defect report documents a previously discovered defect in the software program;
• testing the software program in a test environment that comprises an operating system executing upon a computer, and a software development platform, wherein the software program has a plurality of attributes each associated with at least one of the operating system, the computer, and the software development platform;
• and
• responsive to detecting a given test failure of the software program while testing the software program:
• eliminating, based on attributes selected by the defect reports from the plurality of attributes, one or more of the defect reports from the plurality of defect reports, wherein at least one of the selected attributes is retrieved from the test environment during the determination by invoking a provider script that is specified by one of the defect reports, and wherein eliminating one or more of the defect reports from the plurality of defect reports comprises:
• automatically gathering one or more of the plurality of attributes from the test environment;
• and
• determining, based on at least an automatically gathered attribute selected by a given defect report from the automatically gathered attributes, that a given previously discovered defect, which is documented by the given defect report, did not cause the test failure and eliminating the given defect report from the plurality of defect reports;
• and
• associating the test failure with a defect report that remains after the one or more eliminations.