Distributed management support system for software managers
First Claim
1. Apparatus for a management support system for providing desired information relating to a life cycle of a large scale software system, said apparatus comprising:
- at least one software support system for colecting information relating to a corresponding phase of the life cycle to provide collected information and for storing the collected information into at least one software support system database;
a host computer for extracting pre-defined portions of the collected information sotred within said software support system database to provide extracted information and for updating a common database with the extracted information; and
at least one computer based workstation connected, via a workstation/host communications interface, to said host computer for formulating a request message to said host computer for execution thereat in order to access the desired information from said common database;
wherein said host computer comprises means, responsive to said request message, for initiating a host session for accessing the desired information from said common database and for transmitting to said workstation, via said interface, a response that includes the desired information; and
wherein said workstation comprises means for storing the desired information contained in said response.
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Abstract
A management system utilizes a distributed network having a host computer connected to one or more computer based workstations. Separate, on-line softward support systems provide the execution environment for the system. Each support system provides data that reflects one or more aspects of a life cycle of a development project. This data is stored in separate databases associated with each support system. Periodically, the host computer extracts information from each of these support system databases to obtain data indicative of development activity for various phases of the life cycle of the software system. The extracted information is used to update a relational database. At any time, a manager situated at a workstation can formulate queries into the relational database. Thereafter, the workstation, through a workstation/host communications interface, initiates a host session and then loads the queries into the host computer. The host, in turn, executes these queries and downloads the query results into the workstation. Then the manager appropriately analyzes and interprets those query results at the workstation. The communications interface ensures that the host session remains substantially transparent to the manager. This advantageously frees the manager of any need to learn the host logon procedure and operating system, thereby minimizing the managerial time and effort required to obtain the desired information.
213 Citations
15 Claims
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1. Apparatus for a management support system for providing desired information relating to a life cycle of a large scale software system, said apparatus comprising:
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at least one software support system for colecting information relating to a corresponding phase of the life cycle to provide collected information and for storing the collected information into at least one software support system database; a host computer for extracting pre-defined portions of the collected information sotred within said software support system database to provide extracted information and for updating a common database with the extracted information; and at least one computer based workstation connected, via a workstation/host communications interface, to said host computer for formulating a request message to said host computer for execution thereat in order to access the desired information from said common database; wherein said host computer comprises means, responsive to said request message, for initiating a host session for accessing the desired information from said common database and for transmitting to said workstation, via said interface, a response that includes the desired information; and
wherein said workstation comprises means for storing the desired information contained in said response. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. Apparatus for a management support system for providing desired information relating to a life cycle of a large scale software system, said apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of workstations, wherein each of said workstations can be separately connected to a host computer, via a corresponding workstation/host communications interface, for establishing a substantially transparent corresponding host session, a plurality of software support systems, each executing in a corresponding computer and having a corresponding software support system database associated therewith, for collecting information relating to substantially all phases of the life cycle for said large scale software system to provide separately collected information and for storing the separately collected information into a corresponding said software support system database; means for periodically extracting different predefined portions of the information stored within each said software support system database to provide extracted information portions, and for periodically updating a relational database resident on the host computer with said extracted information portions; a plurality of virtual diskettes located at the host computer; and means for assigning at least a different corresponding one of said virtual diskettes to each corresponding one of said workstations in order to separately transfer a query from each of said workstations to said host computer and to separately transfer a corresponding response from said host computer to each of said workstations, each said response containing the desired information.
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9. Apparatus for management support system for providing desired information relating to a life cycle of a large scale software system, said apparatus comprising:
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at least one software support system for collecting information relating to a corresponding phase of the life cycle to provide collected information and for storing the collected information into at least one software support system database; a host computer for extracting pre-defined portions of the information stored within said software support system database to provide extracted information and for updating a common database with said extracted information; and at least one computer based workstation connected, via a workstation/host communications interface, to said host computer, in a substantially transparent manner to a user situated at said workstation, for formulating a request to said host computer for execution thereat in order to access the desired information from said common database; wherein said host computer comprises; means, responsive to said request, for establishing a host database management session; means, operative during said host database management session, for executing a query into said common database and for providing a query result therefrom as said desired information; means for generating a status message indicative of status of the means for executing a query; and means for formualting said status message and said query result into a response; and wherein said workstation comprises; means for locally formulating said query and for locally storing said query for subsequent inclusion into said request; means for selectably transmitting said query, via said workstation/host communications interface, to said host computer and for locally storing the query result contained in said response as a locally stored query result; means for locally analyzing, in a predefined manner, the locally stored query result to produce an analyzed query result; means for visually presenting said analyzed query result in a user selectable format to generate selected data; and means, responsive to said presenting means, for displaying said selected data and an indication corresponding to said status message. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. In a system comprising a host computer and at least one computer based workstation, a method for downloading to the workstation certain data accessible by the host computer, said method comprising the steps of:
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formulating a request message at the workstation for execution by the host computer, said request message comprising a pre-defined sequence of host instruction and a query for selecting said certain data; transmitting said request to the host computer via a workstation/host communications interface, said interface arranged to connect the workstation to the host computer in a substantially transparent fashion to a user situated at the workstation; receiving said request message within the host computer and, in response to instructions, executable by the host computer, contained in the request message, initiating a database management session within the host computer to execute said query and access said certain data from host computer; returning a response message to the workstation, said response message comprising said certain data; and detecting said response message within said workstation and, in response thereto, storing said certain data contained within said response message. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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Specification