VISUALLY PRIORITIZING INFORMATION IN AN AGILE SYSTEM

• US 20110289475A1
• Filed: 05/03/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Sukhenko, Felix, Greene, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 8,566,779 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations

Abstract

An apparatus and method for prioritizing tasks in a software development environment includes drag-and-drop functionality to prioritize tasks displayed in the window of a browser application executing on a user system. In one embodiment, a prioritizer screen is built at a server using information stored in a workload database object and sent to the user system over a network using interprocess communications.

Claims

1. A method for prioritizing a work load comprising:

receiving, at a server, a request for priority information from a user system, with the user system and the server coupled to a network and with the request including the identity of a specific team;

accessing, using a processor, a workload database object to obtain priority information pertaining to tasks assigned to the specific team;

building, using the processor, a prioritizer screen for the specified team using the priority information obtained from the workload database object, with the priority information sequentially ordering tasks corresponding to records in the workload database object, with the prioritizer screen having a row for each task and with the rows in the prioritizer screen ordered in accordance with the priority information stored in the workload database object;

sending, from the server, the prioritizer screen to the user system, with the prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system;

receiving, at the server, reprioritizing information from the user system indicating that a user has dragged and dropped a selected line in the prioritizer screen displayed in the browser window to a new location to reorder the rows and that the list of tasks displayed in the prioritizer screen has been reprioritized;

building, using the processor, a revised prioritizer screen having rows reordered according to the reprioritizing information and having revised priority information corresponding to reordering of the rows; and

sending, from the server, the revised prioritizer screen to the user system, with the revised prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of the browser application executing on the user system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the server, an indication from the user system that the revised priority information is to be saved; and

entering, using the processor, the revised priority information into the workload database object.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the server, selection information indicating that a group of rows of the prioritizer screen, displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system, are selected;

receiving, at the server, change information indicating a change to be made to a field value of the group of rows selected; and

changing, using the processor, field values of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the group of rows selected in accordance with the change information.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the server, change information indicating a change to be made in a field value of a selected row of the prioritizer screen displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system; and

changing, using the processor, a field value of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the selected row in accordance with the change information.

5. A system for prioritizing a work load comprising:

means for receiving a request for priority information from a user system, with the user system coupled to a network and with the request including the identity of a specific team;

means for accessing a workload database object to obtain priority information pertaining to tasks assigned to the specific team;

means for building a prioritizer screen for the specified team using the priority information obtained from the workload database object, with the priority information sequentially ordering tasks corresponding to records in the workload database object, with the prioritizer screen having a row for each task and with the rows in the prioritizer screen ordered in accordance with the priority information stored in the workload database object;

means for sending the prioritizer screen to the user system, with the prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system;

means for receiving reprioritizing information from the user system indicating that a user has dragged and dropped a selected line in the prioritizer screen displayed in the browser window to a new location to reorder the rows and that the list of tasks displayed in the prioritizer screen has been reprioritized;

means for building a revised prioritizer screen having rows reordered according to the reprioritizing information and having revised priority information corresponding to reordering of the rows; and

means for sending the revised prioritizer screen to the user system, with the revised prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of the browser application executing on the user system.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

means for receiving an indication from the user system that the revised priority information is to be saved; and

means for entering the revised priority information into the workload database object.

7. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

means for receiving selection information indicating that a group of rows of the prioritizer screen, displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system, are selected;

means for receiving change information indicating a change to be made to a field value of the group of rows selected; and

means for changing field values of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the group of rows selected in accordance with the change information.

8. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

means for receiving change information indicating a change to be made in a field value of a selected row of the prioritizer screen displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system; and

means for changing a field value of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the selected row in accordance with the change information.

9. An apparatus for prioritizing a work load comprising:

a server, including a processor and one or more memory modules holding a workload database object and program code, with the server configured to receive a request for priority information from a user system, with the user system and the server coupled to a network and with the request including the identity of a specific team;

with the processor coupled to the one or more memory modules and configured to execute the program code to access a workload database object to obtain priority information pertaining to tasks assigned to the specific team, to build a prioritizer screen for the specified team using the priority information obtained from the workload database object, with the priority information sequentially ordering tasks corresponding to records in the workload database object, with the prioritizer screen having a row for each task and with the rows in the prioritizer screen ordered in accordance with the priority information stored in the workload database object, to send the prioritizer screen to the user system, with the prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system, to receive reprioritizing information from the user system indicating that a user has dragged and dropped a selected line in the prioritizer screen displayed in the browser window to a new location to reorder the rows and that the list of tasks displayed in the prioritizer screen has been reprioritized, to build a revised prioritizer screen having rows reordered according to the reprioritizing information and having revised priority information corresponding to reordering of the rows, and to send the revised prioritizer screen to the user system, with the revised prioritizer screen configured to be displayed in a window of the browser application executing on the user system.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 with the processor further configured to execute program code to:

receive an indication from the user system that the revised priority information is to be saved; and

enter the revised priority information into the workload database object.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 with the processor further configured to execute program code to:

receive selection information indicating that a group of rows of the prioritizer screen, displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system, are selected;

receive change information indicating a change to be made to a field value of the group of rows selected; and

change field values of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the group of rows selected in accordance with the change information.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 with the processor further configured to execute program code to:

receive change information indicating a change to be made in a field value of a selected row of the prioritizer screen displayed in a window of a browser application executing on the user system; and

change a field value of the records of the workload database object corresponding to the selected row in accordance with the change information.