17. In a general purpose computer, a method for automatically testing a business intelligence artifact in a business intelligence system, comprising: authoring a business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system, wherein the business intelligence artifact produces output when the business intelligence artifact is executed in the business intelligence system, and wherein the business intelligence artifact is selected from the group consisting of: a report specification, an analysis cube, and a metadata model; executing the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system to generate a business intelligence output; creating at least one assertion to verify the desired function of the business intelligence artifact when executed in the business intelligence system; testing, with an automated agent interfaced with the business intelligence system, the business intelligence artifact for problems by determining whether the business intelligence output generated by the business intelligence artifact satisfies the conditions of the at least one assertion after execution of the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system; reporting if the conditions of the at least one assertion are not satisfied after execution of the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system; and recording one or more corrections made to the business intelligence artifact as a subsequent version of the business intelligence artifact.
17. In a general purpose computer, a method for automatically testing a business intelligence artifact in a business intelligence system, comprising: authoring a business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system, wherein the business intelligence artifact produces output when the business intelligence artifact is executed in the business intelligence system, and wherein the business intelligence artifact is selected from the group consisting of: a report specification, an analysis cube, and a metadata model; executing the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system to generate a business intelligence output; creating at least one assertion to verify the desired function of the business intelligence artifact when executed in the business intelligence system; testing, with an automated agent interfaced with the business intelligence system, the business intelligence artifact for problems by determining whether the business intelligence output generated by the business intelligence artifact satisfies the conditions of the at least one assertion after execution of the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system; reporting if the conditions of the at least one assertion are not satisfied after execution of the business intelligence artifact in the business intelligence system; and recording one or more corrections made to the business intelligence artifact as a subsequent version of the business intelligence artifact. 22. The method of claim 17 , further comprising automatically recording current and previous versions of the business intelligence artifact as corrections are made to the business intelligence artifact.