Distributed project management system and method

• US 6,308,164 B1
• Filed: 04/28/1997
• Issued: 10/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Jeff Nummelin, John Lanata, Mark Young
• Original Assignee: Jeff Nummelin, John Lanata, Mark Young
• Inventors: Young, Mark, Lanata, John, Nummelin, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NORMAN, MARC E
• Application Number:
  US08/847,687
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 707/1, 345/302
• US Class Current: 705/7.23
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An enterprise project management system includes a system for creating new projects and adding project tasks and resources to the system. Information used to create the projects, project tasks and resources is input at a workstation that may or may not be connected to the enterprise network. The information used to create projects, project tasks and resources includes primary and secondary information. The primary information is essential to the project management system for storing the project, project task and resource and for creating or modifying the project schedules. The secondary information is categorization or classification information useful for reporting and not essential to the scheduling function of the system. The secondary information fields are validated by comparing at least some of them with a set of predefined valid values for each field.

Claims

1. A project management system including a general purpose computing system, said project management system comprising:

A. a primary database configured to store project management information;

B. an input mechanism adapted to facilitate the storage of said project management information;

C. a project data object creator configured to create a project data object within said project management system from said project management information, said project management information including;

1. primary information, including information essential for creating the project data object, said primary information including project task information; and

2. secondary information, including project data object category information not essential for creating the project data object and useful for performing project reporting functions;

D. a validation mechanism configured to validate said secondary information with respect to a second database;

E. an object creation prevention mechanism configured to prevent the creation of a project data object if said validation mechanism cannot validate the secondary information of said project data object with respect to said second database, and

F. a project scheduler configured to automatically create a project schedule as a function of said primary information.

2. A project management system according to claim 1 wherein said input mechanism includes a local database and said project management system further includes a data transport mechanism configured to transfer project data objects between the local database and the primary database.

3. A project management system according to claim 2 further comprising a replication mechanism configured to replicate at least a portion of said primary database in said local database and for replicating at least a portion of said local database in said primary database and wherein said data transport mechanism provides for intermittent connection and transfer of project management information between the local database and the primary database.

4. A project management system according to claim 2 further comprising a storage mechanism configured to store said project data object in said local database and a transfer mechanism configured to transfer said project data object from said local database at said input mechanism to said primary database.

5. A project management system according to claim 2 wherein said data transport mechanism includes a computer network and said input mechanism includes a network workstation.

6. A project management system according to claim 2 wherein said local database include said second database.

7. A project management system according to claim 2 wherein said second database is a separate database from said local database.

8. A project management system according to claim 1 wherein:

1. said secondary information includes a field for inputting a type of project data object and said second database includes a set of predefined types of valid data objects, and said validation mechanism compares said field for inputting said type of project data object with said set of predefined types of valid data objects; and

2. said object creation prevention mechanism prevents the creation of said project data object if the information input into said field for defining a type of project data object does not match one of the predefined types of valid project data objects from said set of valid types of project data objects.

9. A project management system according to claim 1 wherein said project data object includes a project and said primary information consists essentially of a project name.

10. A project management system according to claim 1 wherein said project data object includes a project task and said primary information consists essentially of an associated project name, a task name, a task duration and a task sequence.

11. A project management system according to claim 1 wherein said project data object includes a resource and said primary information consists essentially of a resource name and resource calendar information.

12. A method of creating a project data object in a project management system, said project management system including a primary database configured to store project management information, an input mechanism adapted to facilitate storage of said project management information, and a project scheduler, the method comprising:

A. inputting project management information to be used to create a project data object, said project management information including;

1. primary information, including information essential to creating the project data object, said primary information including project task information; and

2. secondary information, including project data object category information not essential to creating project data objects within the project management system and useful for performing project reporting functions;

B. validating at least a portion of the secondary information with respect to a second database;

C. preventing the creation of said project data object if said secondary information is not valid with respect to said second database; and

D. automatically creating a project schedule as a function of said primary information.

13. A method of creating project data objects according to claim 12 wherein said input mechanism includes a local database and said project management system further includes a transport mechanism configured to transfer said project management information between said local database and said primary database, the method further including the steps of:

E. storing said project data object in said local database; and

F. transferring said project data object from said local database to said primary database over said transport mechanism.

14. A method of creating project data objects according to claim 12 wherein said secondary information includes one or more data fields containing data and said validating the secondary information includes the step of comparing the data of at least one of said data fields to a set of values from said second database to determine if the data matches one of said values of the set.

15. A method of creating project data objects according to claim 12 wherein said validating the secondary information includes limiting the input of information to selecting said information from a list of predefined values.

16. A system for managing data objects comprising:

A. a primary database configured to store data objects;

B. an input mechanism adapted to facilitate storage of data used to create data objects;

C. a transport mechanism configured to transfer data objects between said input mechanism and said primary database;

D. a storage mechanism configured to store said data object in said primary database in accordance with a native application for processing said data object, said data object being composed of;

1. primary information, including information essential for storing said data object in accordance within said native application; and

2. secondary information, including data object category information not essential to storing said data object with respect to the native application;

E. a validation mechanism configured to validate at least a portion of said secondary information with respect to a second database; and

F. an object storage prevention mechanism configured to prevent the data object from being stored in said database if said secondary information cannot be validated with respect to said second database, wherein said primary and secondary information may be information from other than predetermined linked hierarchical groups of data.

17. A system for managing data objects according to claim 16 wherein said input mechanism includes a local database for storing data objects and said system further includes data transport mechanism for transferring data objects between said input mechanism and said primary database.

18. A system for managing data objects according to claim 16 wherein said data objects are word processing data files and said native application is a word processing program including an object creation mechanism configured to create, edit, and store the word processing data files in the primary database.

19. A method of storing data objects produced by a native application in a primary database, said native application residing and operating on a general purpose computing device, the method comprising:

A. inputting said data object as a function of;

1. primary information, including information essential for storing said data object in said primary databases and

2. secondary information including data object category information not essential for storing said data object in said primary database;

B. validating at least a portion of said secondary information with respect to a second database; and

C. preventing the creation of said data object if said secondary information is not valid with respect to said second database,

wherein said primary and secondary information may be information from other than predetermined linked hierarchical groups of data.