MANAGEMENT AND NOTIFICATION OF OBJECT MODEL CHANGES

• US 20130080350A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhola, Saurabh, Denner, Gary, Loughran, Michael J., Meade, John, Keohan, Paula M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,946,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/348
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for managing development of a model set comprised of one or more object models by a plurality of model developers. Each model developer may be considered an interested party. For example, when a model developer changes an area of the model, that person becomes the most interested party in other changes made to the same area. An automated mechanism is provided to track changes made to the model set and informs interested parties as changes are made or after changes are made to the model based on a weighting system. In one embodiment, the weighting system may be based on a distance from the changed portions and on the amount of time since a party last made a change to the same area.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing development of a model set comprised of one or more object models by a plurality of users, comprising:

determining one or more model relationships for a model set having a plurality of model elements, each model relationship connecting a first model element to a second model element of the plurality of model elements;

receiving, from a first user, change information for a changed model element, the changed model element being one of the plurality of model elements;

identifying one or more related model elements by traversing, from the changed model element, other model elements via the model relationships;

identifying, for each identified related model element, one or more interested users having a past interaction with the identified related model element;

determining, for each interested user, a weighted relationship between the interested user and the changed model element based on the past interaction with the identified related model element and based on the model relationship between the identified related model element and the changed model element; and

generating a change notification to each of the interested users based on their corresponding weighted relationship.

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

storing the change information in an object history log, wherein the change information comprises an identity of the first user and datetime information of the received change information.

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

determining a weighted relationship between the first user and the changed model element comprising a weight value representing a maximum level of interest.

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

determining one or more model elements previously changed by the first user; and

determining a weighted relationship between the first user and the changed model element comprising a weight value calculated based on a model relationship between the changed model element and the previously changed model element.

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

responsive to receiving the change information for the changed model element from a first user, devaluating a weighted relationship between the changed model element and a second user, the second user having modified the changed model element prior to the first user.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the past interaction of a user with the identified related model element comprises:

a subscription request to be notified of changes to the identified related model element.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change notification comprises a description of the change information and the weighted relationship, and wherein the change notification is selected from at least one of an e-mail message and a real-time alert message.

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

determining whether at least one of the interested users approves of the change information;

responsive to determining at least one of the interested users approves, submitting the change information to a source control system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the generating the change notification further comprises:

determining whether the change information affect a model element other than the changed model element;

generating a change notification for the first user only if the change information affects a model element other than the changed model element.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the weighted relationship comprises:

calculating a weight value based on a number of levels comprising the model relationship between the changed model element and the identified related model element and based on an amount of time elapsed since the past interaction of the interested user with the identified related model element.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the change notification comprises:

generating the change notification for each of the interested users associated with a weighted relationship having a weighted value exceeding a threshold value.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the one or more interested users further comprises:

identifying one or more interested users having a past interaction with a related version of the identified related model element.