System to Monitor and Maintain Balance of Factory Quality Attributes Within a Software Factory Operating Environment

• US 20090055795A1
• Filed: 08/23/2007
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Reddington, Francis X., Finlayson, Ronald D., Mitsumori, Naomi M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,189,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A System to Maintain Balance of Factory Quality Attributes with Software Factory Operating Environment provides the means to determine if a deliverable will meet the needs of a client'"'"'s project. The process includes the identification and measurement of different parameters of a software factory, including specified architectural features, and compares these parameters with the factory'"'"'s strategic artifacts and client'"'"'s critical project needs to qualify attributes within the software factory environment. This process provides a means to monitor and maintain an optimal balance of desirable quality attributes. Thus, quality attributes are analyzed before design time and before delivery of a software product, such that an analysis can be performed before any considerable amount of time and efforts have been spent on a project.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and maintaining a balance of factory quality attributes when developing a deliverable software in a software factory, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request from a customer for a deliverable software, wherein the deliverable software is to be designed for execution of a project for the customer;

establishing, by a balance evaluation engine in a software factory, a business baseline for a project proposal, wherein the project proposal is for creating the deliverable software, and wherein the business baseline establishes what activities are needed to satisfy a goal of the project, and wherein the business baseline is based on a balance of planned performance, efficiency and dependability of the deliverable software;

evaluating, by the balance evaluation engine, architectural qualities of the project proposal, wherein the architectural qualities describe hardware and software that are to be used in the project, and wherein the architectural qualities are evaluated to determine a relevance of the project proposal to business drivers of the customer, wherein the business drivers describe motivators for implementing the deliverable software and executing the project;

determining what percentage of the deliverable software, when constructed in accordance with the project proposal, will contain artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline, wherein artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline are artifacts that, when executed, perform steps that meet the business baseline;

measuring an efficiency of the deliverable software in meeting the business baseline; and

recursively performing the establishing, evaluating, determining, and measuring steps to modify the project proposal until a design is created for the deliverable software that satisfies the business drivers.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a work packet in the software factory, wherein the software factory comprises;

a software factory governance section that evaluates the project proposal for acceptance by the software factory,

a design center composed of a requirements analysis team and an architecture team, wherein the design center sections the project proposal into major functional areas that are to be handled by the requirements analysis team and the architecture team, and wherein the design center creates work packets, and

an assembly line that receives and executes the work packets to create the deliverable software;

receiving a description of software needs from a customer;

inducting the project proposal into the software factory, wherein inducting the project proposal initially evaluates the project proposal'"'"'s compatibility with a capacity of the software factory;

parsing the project proposal into major functional areas;

retrieving work packets that are appropriate for the project proposal, wherein the work packets include pre-stored, reusable, self-contained, discrete units of software code;

assembling the work packets into the deliverable software;

testing the deliverable software; and

delivering the deliverable software to the customer.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the assembly line further comprises:

a published set of services and a published set of requirements for the assembly line, wherein the published set of services and the published set of requirements for the assembly line are published to the design center, and wherein the published set of services describes what assembly services for assembling work packets are offered by the assembly line, and wherein the published set of requirements describes what execution environment must be used by work packets that are provided by the design center for assembly in the assembly line.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the work packets include governance procedures, standards, reused assets, work packet instructions, integration strategy, schedules, exit criteria and artifact checklist templates for Input/Output routines.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the assembly line includes software that automatically recognizes a project type for the project proposal, and wherein the assembly line assembles the work packets into the deliverable software in accordance with the project type that is recognized by the assembly line.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the assembly line conducts an integration test, a system test, a system integration test and a performance test of the deliverable software, wherein the integration test tests the deliverable software for compatibility with the client'"'"'s system, the system test checks the client'"'"'s system to ensure that the client'"'"'s system is operating properly, the system integration test tests for bugs that may arise when the deliverable software is integrated into the client'"'"'s system, and the performance test tests the deliverable software for defects as it is executing in the client'"'"'s system.

7. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor;

a memory coupled to the data bus; and

a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for;

receiving a request from a customer for a deliverable software, wherein the deliverable software is to be designed for execution of a project for the customer;

establishing, by a balance evaluation engine in a software factory, a business baseline for a project proposal, wherein the project proposal is for creating the deliverable software, and wherein the business baseline establishes what activities are needed to satisfy a goal of the project, and wherein the business baseline is based on a balance of planned performance, efficiency and dependability of the deliverable software;

evaluating, by the balance evaluation engine, architectural qualities of the project proposal, wherein the architectural qualities describe hardware and software that are to be used in the project, and wherein the architectural qualities are evaluated to determine a relevance of the project proposal to business drivers of the customer, wherein the business drivers describe motivators for implementing the deliverable software and executing the project;

determining what percentage of the deliverable software, when constructed in accordance with the project proposal, will contain artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline, wherein artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline are artifacts that, when executed, perform steps that meet the business baseline;

measuring an efficiency of the deliverable software in meeting the business baseline; and

recursively performing the establishing, evaluating, determining, and measuring steps to modify the project proposal until a design is created for the deliverable software that satisfies the business drivers.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions further comprise executable instructions for:

receiving a work packet in the software factory, wherein the software factory comprises;

a software factory governance section that evaluates the project proposal for acceptance by the software factory,

a design center composed of a requirements analysis team and an architecture team, wherein the design center sections the project proposal into major functional areas that are to be handled by the requirements analysis team and the architecture team, and wherein the design center creates work packets, and

an assembly line that receives and executes the work packets to create the deliverable software;

receiving a description of software needs from a customer;

inducting the project proposal into the software factory, wherein inducting the project proposal initially evaluates the project proposal'"'"'s compatibility with a capacity of the software factory;

parsing the project proposal into major functional areas;

retrieving work packets that are appropriate for the project proposal, wherein the work packets include pre-stored, reusable, self-contained, discrete units of software code;

assembling the work packets into the deliverable software;

testing the deliverable software; and

delivering the deliverable software to the customer.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the design center further comprises:

a requirements analysis team, wherein the requirements analysis team is responsible for determining system requirements for executing the deliverable software on the customer'"'"'s system; and

an architectural team, wherein the architectural team models the project proposal in accordance with customer constraints, and wherein the architectural team bundles the customer constraints together with the work packets for execution in the assembly line.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the work packets include governance procedures, standards, reused assets, work packet instructions, integration strategy, schedules, exit criteria and artifact checklist templates for Input/Output routines.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the assembly line includes software that automatically recognizes a project type for the project proposal, and wherein the assembly line assembles the work packets into the deliverable software in accordance with the project type that is recognized by the assembly line.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the assembly line conducts an integration test, a system test, a system integration test and a performance test of the deliverable software, wherein the integration test tests the deliverable software for compatibility with the client'"'"'s system, the system test checks the client'"'"'s system to ensure that the client'"'"'s system is operating properly, the system integration test tests for bugs that may arise when the deliverable software is integrated into the client'"'"'s system, and the performance test tests the deliverable software for defects as it is executing in the client'"'"'s system.

13. A computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program, the computer program comprising computer executable instructions configured for:

receiving a request from a customer for a deliverable software, wherein the deliverable software is to be designed for execution of a project for the customer;

establishing, by a balance evaluation engine in a software factory, a business baseline for a project proposal, wherein the project proposal is for creating the deliverable software, and wherein the business baseline establishes what activities are needed to satisfy a goal of the project, and wherein the business baseline is based on a balance of planned performance, efficiency and dependability of the deliverable software;

evaluating, by the balance evaluation engine, architectural qualities of the project proposal, wherein the architectural qualities describe hardware and software that are to be used in the project, and wherein the architectural qualities are evaluated to determine a relevance of the project proposal to business drivers of the customer, wherein the business drivers describe motivators for implementing the deliverable software and executing the project;

determining what percentage of the deliverable software, when constructed in accordance with the project proposal, will contain artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline, wherein artifacts that are aligned with the business baseline are artifacts that, when executed, perform steps that meet the business baseline;

measuring an efficiency of the deliverable software in meeting the business baseline; and

recursively performing the establishing, evaluating, determining, and measuring steps to modify the project proposal until a design is created for the deliverable software that satisfies the business drivers.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprise executable instructions for:

receiving a work packet in the software factory, wherein the software factory comprises;

a software factory governance section that evaluates the project proposal for acceptance by the software factory,

a design center composed of a requirements analysis team and an architecture team, wherein the design center sections the project proposal into major functional areas that are to be handled by the requirements analysis team and the architecture team, and wherein the design center creates work packets, and

an assembly line that receives and executes the work packets to create the deliverable software;

receiving a description of software needs from a customer;

inducting the project proposal into the software factory, wherein inducting the project proposal initially evaluates the project proposal'"'"'s compatibility with a capacity of the software factory;

parsing the project proposal into major functional areas;

retrieving work packets that are appropriate for the project proposal, wherein the work packets include pre-stored, reusable, self-contained, discrete units of software code;

assembling the work packets into the deliverable software;

testing the deliverable software; and

delivering the deliverable software to the customer.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the design center further comprises:

a requirements analysis team, wherein the requirements analysis team is responsible for determining system requirements for executing the deliverable software on the customer'"'"'s system; and

an architectural team, wherein the architectural team models the project proposal in accordance with customer constraints, and wherein the architectural team bundles the customer constraints together with the work packets for execution in the assembly line.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the work packets include governance procedures, standards, reused assets, work packet instructions, integration strategy, schedules, exit criteria and artifact checklist templates for Input/Output routines.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the assembly line includes software that automatically recognizes a project type for the project proposal, and wherein the assembly line assembles the work packets into the deliverable software in accordance with the project type that is recognized by the assembly line.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the assembly line conducts an integration test, a system test, a system integration test and a performance test of the deliverable software, wherein the integration test tests the deliverable software for compatibility with the client'"'"'s system, the system test checks the client'"'"'s system to ensure that the client'"'"'s system is operating properly, the system integration test tests for bugs that may arise when the deliverable software is integrated into the client'"'"'s system, and the performance test tests the deliverable software for defects as it is executing in the client'"'"'s system.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer-usable medium is a component of a remote server, and wherein the computer executable instructions are deployable to a supervisory computer from the remote server.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are capable of being provided by a service provider to a customer on an on-demand basis.