Software development artifact creation tool

• US 7,712,073 B1
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Xu, Cong, Telford, Courtlan M., Vinodkrishnan, Nalledath P., Srinivasan, Lavanya
• Primary Examiner(s): Yigdall; Michael J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang; Ben C
• Application Number:
  US10/744,170
• Time in Patent Office: 2,324 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques

Abstract

A system and method for engineering data into interface control documents is provided. The method includes creating and loading an interface control document by selecting features of an interface control document to create, providing a standards document having interface control document standards, and providing a case tool for maintaining interface control documents. The method provides for generating the interface control document using the standards document and based upon the selected features, and storing the interface control document in the case tool. The method includes designating a document having data attributes for the interface control document, reading at least some of the data attributes from the document, loading at least some of the data attributes read from the document into the interface control document, and storing the interface control document having at least some of the data attributed in the case tool.

Claims

1. A system for engineering data into interface control documents, comprising:

a processor;

a user interface of a first software development tool that designates a source file containing source data elements to engineer into a destination interface control document, wherein the each of the source data elements include a structure name portion, an attribute name portion, a documentation portion maintaining a description of the data element, and a data type portion;

a template interface control document maintaining a list of standard interface control document components for one or more projects, the list of standard interface control document components including a standard use case component, a standard sequence diagram component, and a standard object model component;

wherein the user interface further receives a selection of standard components of the template interface control document to include in a structure of the destination interface control document;

a generator module comprising instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium that when executed by a processor communicates with the user interface and generates the destination interface control document that defines one or more of a communication technology employed, a structure of information communicated, or a mandatory message sequence, wherein the structure of the destination interface control document comprises an empty structure, and wherein the structure of the destination interface control document is compatible with the first software development tool and includes one or more of a use case component, a sequence diagram component, and data attributes component that includes multiple attributes, each of the multiple data attributes including a structure name portion, an attribute name portion, a documentation portion maintaining a description of the data attribute, and a data type portion, and

wherein the source file is an artifact of a second software development tool and wherein the first software development tool and the second software development tool are incompatible;

a repository that stores the destination interface control document as an mdl file type, wherein the mdl file type is a modeling file in a proprietary format compatible with the first software development tool; and

a conversion module comprising instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium that when executed by a processor reads the source data elements from the source file designated via the user interface, transforms the read source data elements from a format compatible with the second software development tool to a format compatible with the first software development tool, and writes the transformed source data elements into the structure of the destination interface control document, wherein the conversion module stores the destination interface control document having at least some of the source data elements in the first software development tool.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein source file is further defined as a comma separated value file.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first software development tool is a computer aided software engineering tool.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the source file is a comma separated value file and wherein each of a plurality of data lines of the source file define a data element.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the source file includes a column for a structure name, a column for the name of the data element, a column for a description of the data element, and a column defining a data type of the data element.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second conversion module that exports contents of an interface control document to a second file, wherein the source file and the second file have a same format.

7. A method for creating and loading an interface control document, comprising:

selecting features of a destination interface control document to generate, wherein the destination interface control document defines one or more of a communication technology employed, a structure of information communicated, or a mandatory message sequence;

providing a template document having a list of standard interface control document components;

providing a computer aided software engineering tool for maintaining interface control documents;

generating the destination interface control document defining a structure using one of the standard interface control document components from the template document that correspond with the selected features, wherein the structure of the destination interface control document is empty and the structure is compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

storing the destination interface control document as an mdl file type in the computer aided software engineering tool, wherein the mdl file type is a modeling file in a proprietary format compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

designating a source document having source data elements for the destination interface control document, wherein each of the source data elements include a structure name portion, an attribute name portion, a documentation portion maintaining a description of the data element, and a data type portion, and where the source document is an artifact of a software development tool that is incompatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

reading at least some of the data elements from the source document;

transforming the read data elements from a format compatible with the software development tool to a format compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

loading the transformed data elements into the structure of the destination interface control document; and

storing the destination interface control document having at least some of the data elements in the computer aided software engineering tool.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the source document is a comma separated values file containing at least some of the data elements for the destination interface control document.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the features comprise at least one use case artifact and at least one application artifact.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the transforming and the loading of the data elements includes writing object attributes into the destination interface control document by importing structure names, attribute names, descriptions, and data types based on the data elements read from the source document.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

inputting a use case name related to the interface control document;

creating a use case realization related to the use case name; and

creating a use case diagram related to the use case name.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a processer, causes the processor to:

select features of a destination interface control document to generate, wherein the destination interface control document defines one or more of a communication technology employed, a structure of information communicated, or a mandatory message sequence;

provide a template document having a list of standard interface control document components;

provide a computer aided software engineering tool for maintaining interface control documents;

generate the destination interface control document defining a structure using one of the standard interface control document components from the template document that correspond with the selected features, wherein the structure of the destination interface control document is empty and the structure is compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

store the destination interface control document as an mdl file type in the computer aided software engineering tool, wherein the mdl file type is a modeling file in a proprietary format compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

designate a source document having source data elements for the destination interface control document, wherein each of the source data elements include a structure name portion, an attribute name portion, a documentation portion maintaining a description of the data element, and a data type portion, and where the source document is an artifact of a software development tool that is incompatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

read at least some of the data elements from the source document;

transform the read data elements from a format compatible with the software development tool to a format compatible with the computer aided software engineering tool;

load the transformed data elements into the structure of the destination interface control document; and

store the destination interface control document having at least some of the data elements in the computer aided software engineering tool.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the source document is a comma separated values file containing at least some of the data elements for the destination interface control document.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the features comprise at least one use case artifact and at least one application artifact.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein when the processor transforms and loads the data elements the program causes the processor to write object attributes into the destination interface control document by importing structure names, attribute names, descriptions, and data types based on the data elements read from the source document.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the program further causes the processor to:

input a use case name related to the interface control document;

create a use case realization related to the use case name; and

create a use case diagram related to the use case name.