ASSESSMENT RESULTS VIEWER

• US 20120154404A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Holt, William Gifford, Clement, George, Benes, Aman, Thorsness, Jason, Greenwell, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,669,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

An assessment results viewer displays the results of assessments that quantify the performance of an aspect of a computing device. The viewer presents both an overview of the collected data and mechanisms for displaying ever-increasing details, including raw data itself The viewer further provides actionable information to the user that can offer the user guidance, or otherwise suggest potential courses of action. The viewer automatically aggregates multiple iterations of the same assessment to generate derivative overview data, and automatically aligns data collected by the same assessment across multiple job files. Such aggregation and alignment is performed by reference to metadata, including identifying information. Data can be presented in tabular form, and users can pivot along different axis to focus on groupings of data.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for displaying assessment results obtained by assessments that quantify a performance of an aspect of a computing device, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising:

obtaining, from at least one job file, assessment data collected by iterations of assessments and assessment metadata;

de-serializing the assessment data from the order in which the assessment data was collected in the at least one job file;

identifying, within a single job file, multiple equivalent iterations of a first assessment performed with a first set of parameters;

aggregating, in accordance with the assessment metadata, assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

generating at least one derivative row comprising the aggregated assessment data; and

generating a tabular presentation of the assessment data comprising the at least one derivative row as an overview of the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations, the tabular presentation being extendable to further also comprise the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

2. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for aggregating the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprise computer-executable instructions for selecting, as the aggregated assessment data, a median of the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

and wherein further the assessment metadata indicates that the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprises numeric data for which the overview can be generated by selecting the median of the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

3. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for aggregating the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprise computer-executable instructions for performing an AND operation on the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

and wherein further the assessment metadata indicates that the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprises Boolean data for which the overview can be generated by performing the AND operation on the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

4. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for aggregating the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprise computer-executable instructions for concatenating the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

and wherein further the assessment metadata indicates that the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations comprises textual strings for which the overview can be generated by performing the concatenation operation on the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

5. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for identifying the multiple equivalent iterations of the first assessment comprise computer-executable instructions for identifying an iteration of a second assessment as being one of the multiple equivalent iterations of the first assessment based on an identifier and a version number of the second assessment matching an identifier and a version number of the first assessment;

and wherein further the assessment metadata comprises the identifier and the version number of both the first and the second assessments.

6. The computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the computer-executable instructions for generating the tabular presentation comprise computer-executable instructions for ordering, proximate to the at least one derivative row, a row comprising data from the second assessment if the identifier of the first assessment is equivalent to the identifier of the second assessment, but the version number of the first assessment is different from the version number of the second assessment.

7. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for generating the tabular presentation comprise computer-executable instructions for matching equivalent iterations of the first assessment performed with the first set of parameters across multiple job files and displaying the assessment data from the matched equivalent iterations in a same row, the assessment data from each of the multiple job files being displayed in a column associated with that job file.

8. The computer-readable media of claim 7, wherein at least some of the multiple job files comprise assessment data collected from multiple computing devices.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 1, comprising further computer-executable instructions for:

receiving an indication of a user grouping of assessments;

further aggregating, in accordance with the assessment metadata, assessment data collected by iterations of the user grouped assessments; and

generating at least one further, higher-level derivative row comprising the further aggregated assessment data.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions for generating the tabular presentation comprise computer-executable instructions for pivoting the table in accordance with a selected grouping from among the user groupings.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions for generating the tabular presentation comprise computer-executable instructions for providing, based on the assessment metadata, a qualitative indicator for the assessment data;

wherein further the assessment metadata comprises qualitative delineations of the assessment data.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 1, comprising further computer-executable instructions for generating actionable information associated with a sub-optimal condition indicated by the assessment data.

13. A method for generating a display of assessment results obtained by assessments that quantify a performance of an aspect of a computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining, from at least one job file, assessment data collected by iterations of assessments and assessment metadata;

de-serializing the assessment data from the order in which the assessment data was collected in the at least one job file;

identifying, within a single job file, multiple equivalent iterations of a first assessment performed with a first set of parameters;

aggregating, in accordance with the assessment metadata, assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

generating at least one derivative row comprising the aggregated assessment data; and

generating a tabular presentation of the assessment data comprising the at least one derivative row as an overview of the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations, the tabular presentation being extendable to further also comprise the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifying the multiple equivalent iterations of the first assessment comprises identifying an iteration of a second assessment as being one of the multiple equivalent iterations of the first assessment based on an identifier and a version number of the second assessment matching an identifier and a version number of the first assessment;

and wherein further the assessment metadata comprises the identifier and the version number of both the first and the second assessments.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating the tabular presentation comprises matching equivalent iterations of the first assessment performed with the first set of parameters across multiple job files and displaying the assessment data from the matched equivalent iterations in a same row, the assessment data from each of the multiple job files being displayed in a column associated with that job file.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating the tabular presentation comprises providing, based on the assessment metadata, a qualitative indicator for the assessment data;

wherein further the assessment metadata comprises qualitative delineations of the assessment data.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of generating actionable information associated with a sub-optimal condition indicated by the assessment data.

18. A system comprising:

multiple computing devices, each having had executed thereon assessments that quantified a performance of an aspect of a computing device, from among the multiple computing devices, on which they were executed; and

One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for displaying assessment results obtained by the assessments, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising;

obtaining, from multiple job files, assessment data collected by iterations of assessments and assessment metadata, wherein each of the multiple computing devices has at least one job file, from among the multiple job files, associated with it;

de-serializing the assessment data from the order in which the assessment data was collected in the multiple job files;

identifying, within a single job file, multiple equivalent iterations of a first assessment performed with a first set of parameters;

aggregating, in accordance with the assessment metadata, assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations;

generating at least one derivative row comprising the aggregated assessment data; and

generating a tabular presentation of the assessment data comprising the at least one derivative row as an overview of the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations and comprising a column for each of the multiple job files, the tabular presentation being extendable to further also comprise the assessment data collected by the identified multiple equivalent iterations.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more computer-readable media comprise further computer-executable instructions for:

receiving an indication of a user grouping of assessments;

further aggregating, in accordance with the assessment metadata, assessment data collected by iterations of the user grouped assessments; and

generating at least one further, higher-level derivative row comprising the further aggregated assessment data

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the user grouping of assessments is in accordance with subsystems of the multiple computing devices;

and wherein further the computer-executable instructions for generating the tabular presentation comprise computer-executable instructions for pivoting the table so as to comprise columns directed to the subsystems and rows directed to the multiple computing devices.