Project Management System With Inspection Functionality

• US 20100070321A1
• Filed: 09/16/2008
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Granted Patent: US 8,862,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group

Abstract

A project management system manages project schedule data using project task state data. The project task state data indicates the current state of project tasks and is used to determine which project tasks are to be included in a member schedule editor, member schedule reports and inspection reports. The project management system also provides support for various inspection functionality. This includes, for example, identifying and naming inspection material for use in inspection meeting forms and inspection meeting documents. The inspection functionality also includes generating an inspection index and an inspection statistics report.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing project schedule data, the computer-implemented method comprising:

generating and storing in a project schedule database schedule data for a plurality of project tasks in a project;

generating and storing in association with the schedule data in the project schedule database, state data that is separate from the schedule data and indicates a current state of each of the plurality of project tasks, wherein the current state includes one of the project task is completed, the project task has been started but is not completed, the project task is planned but not started, only a start date is specified for the project task and the project task is unscheduled; and

in response to a request to perform an inspection, retrieving inspection material from the project schedule database, wherein the inspection material includes schedule data for one or more project tasks that do not have any child project tasks and, based upon the corresponding state data, have a state of started but not completed, planned but not started or have only a start date specified.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the inspection material further includes schedule data for a particular project task that, based upon the corresponding state data, has a state of started but not completed, planned but not started or has only a start date specified and has at least one child project task that is a review, test or inspection project task.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2, further comprising generating and including in the inspection material, in association with the schedule data for the particular project task, identification data that identifies the particular project task and the child project task for the particular project task.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein retrieving the inspection material from the project schedule database is performed by processing a single query against the project schedule database, wherein the single query includes a parameter for the state data.

5. A computer-implemented method for managing inspections in a project management system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

generating and storing in a project schedule database schedule data for a plurality of project tasks in a project;

generating and storing in association with the schedule data in the project schedule database, state data that is separate from the schedule data and indicates a current state of each of the plurality of project tasks, wherein the current state includes one of the project task is completed, the project task has been started but is not completed, the project task is planned but not started, only a start date is specified for the project task and the project task is unscheduled; and

in response to a request to perform an inspection,

identifying one or more project tasks that qualify for inspection based upon the state data associated with the one or more project tasks indicating that each of the one or more projects tasks has been scheduled but not yet completed,

identifying a plurality of inspection materials associated with the one or more project tasks, and

generating an inspection meeting form that;

identifies the plurality of inspection materials, and

allows a user to enter information about defects in the plurality of inspection materials.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 5, further comprising generating an inspection meeting document that documents results of an inspection performed on one or more of the plurality of inspection materials, wherein the inspection meeting document includes data that uniquely identifies the inspection and data that uniquely identifies the inspection meeting document.

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 5, further comprising retrieving the inspection material from the project schedule database by processing a single query against the project schedule database, wherein the single query includes a parameter for the state data.

8. A computer-implemented method for managing inspections in a project management system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

generating and storing in a project schedule database schedule data for a plurality of project tasks in a project;

generating and storing in association with the schedule data in the project schedule database, state data that is separate from the schedule data and indicates a current state of each of the plurality of project tasks, wherein the current state includes one of the project task is completed, the project task has been started but is not completed, the project task is planned but not started, only a start date is specified for the project task and the project task is unscheduled; and

generating a first inspection meeting document that documents results of a first inspection performed on a first set of inspection materials, wherein the first inspection meeting document includes data that uniquely identifies the first inspection and data that uniquely identifies the first inspection meeting document;

generating a second inspection meeting document that documents results of a second inspection performed on a second set of inspection materials, wherein the second inspection meeting document includes data that uniquely identifies the second inspection and data that uniquely identifies the second inspection meeting document; and

generating an inspection index that includes at least a first entry that references the first inspection meeting document and a second entry that references the second inspection meeting document.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, further comprising retrieving the first set of inspection materials from the project schedule database by processing a single query against the project schedule database, wherein the single query includes a parameter for the state data.

10. A computer-implemented method for managing inspections in a project management system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

generating and storing in a project schedule database schedule data for a plurality of project tasks in a project;

generating and storing in association with the schedule data in the project schedule database, state data that is separate from the schedule data and indicates a current state of each of the plurality of project tasks, wherein the current state includes one of the project task is completed, the project task has been started but is not completed, the project task is planned but not started, only a start date is specified for the project task and the project task is unscheduled; and

generating a first inspection meeting document that documents results of a first inspection performed on a first set of inspection materials, wherein the first inspection meeting document includes data that uniquely identifies the first inspection and data that uniquely identifies the first inspection meeting document;

generating a second inspection meeting document that documents results of a second inspection performed on a second set of inspection materials, wherein the second inspection meeting document includes data that uniquely identifies the second inspection and data that uniquely identifies the second inspection meeting document; and

generating an inspection statistics report that includes statistics about the first and second inspections.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 10, further comprising retrieving the first set of inspection materials from the project schedule database by processing a single query against the project schedule database, wherein the single query includes a parameter for the state data.