Integrated work lists for engineering project change management

• US 8,726,226 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Groves, Mark, Jacobsen, Jens, Dutta, Suhail, Trewin, Tracey Glass
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): YUEN, KEITH CHI HANG
• Application Number:
  US12/479,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20100313179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: 717/101, 717104-105
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A tool supports management of engineering project changes using a current design diagram with links to implementation components, a proposed design diagram, and a work list of tasks for transforming the current design into the proposed design. Tasks recite intended changes such as add, remove, or refactor, with reference to implementation components to be changed, and tracking information. Work list tasks may be automatically generated based on design model differences correlated with project code, automatically generated based on tracked user design actions correlated with project code, and/or manually generated by users. Work lists may be exported. Users can mark a relationship for removal and view a corresponding updated work list. Users can trace impact of a work list on project context such as testing coverage, database structures, and user scenarios.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium, which is not a signal, configured with data and instructions for performing a method for managing changes in an engineering project, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying a current design diagram in a computer system display device, the current design diagram representing a current design of an engineering project, the current design diagram including at least two design elements, each of these design elements having a visual representation in the display device, each of these design elements also having a link to at least one respective implementation component;

displaying a proposed design diagram in the display device, the proposed design diagram representing a proposed design of the engineering project and versioned separately from the current design diagram, which allows both versions to reside separately in the display device at the same time, the proposed design diagram including at least one proposed design element not present in the current design diagram, the proposed design element having a visual representation in the display device; and

generating a work list in a computer system memory, the work list including specific tasks for transforming the current design into the proposed design of the engineering project, as opposed to including all tasks from design creation to the current design, wherein the work list comprises a refactoring task for refactoring with at least one of the following implementation components;

a software namespace, a software class, a software method, a software call, a block of software code, a software source code component, wherein the transforming comprises visualizing and analyzing the current design for detecting both simple and complex relationships of the implementation components, and at least one task of the work list has a change category summarizing an intended change to be made to the current design, and also has a reference to at least one of;

an implementation component which is to be changed as indicated in the change category, a design element which is to be changed as indicated in the change category, the at least one task also having tracking information which includes a task status of the intended change to the referenced component, namely, the intended change is unassigned, the intended change is assigned, the intended change is underway, the intended change is tested, or the intended change is completed.

2. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the generating step comprises:

automatically identifying a design element difference between the current design diagram and the proposed design diagram;

automatically tracing a link for the design element difference to a software source code implementation component; and

automatically adding a work list task which has a change category based at least on the design element difference and also has a reference to the software source code implementation component;

whereby the work list task is based on model differences correlated with project code.

3. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the generating step comprises:

receiving a user selection of a design element of the current design diagram;

accepting a user command to alter the selected design element;

automatically tracing a link for the design element to a software source code implementation component; and

automatically adding a work list task which has a change category based at least on the user command and also has a reference to the software source code implementation component;

whereby the work list task is based on tracked user design actions correlated with project code.

4. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the generating step comprises receiving and responding to user gestures, whereby the work list task is added manually.

5. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises updating the task status in response to a user action.

6. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises exporting a work list task to a work tracking tool which did not generate the work list task.

7. The configured medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises storing in a persistent memory a work list task including at least the following:

a change category, a reference to a software source code implementation component which is to be changed as indicated in the change category, a status, a task owner.

8. A method for using a tool for managing changes in an engineering project, the method comprising the steps of:

using the tool to view a current design diagram in a computer system display device, the current design diagram representing a current design of an engineering project, the current design diagram including at least two design elements, each of these design elements having a visual representation in the display device, each of these design elements also having a link to at least one respective implementation component, the implementation components being at least two of the following;

a software namespace, a software class, a software method, a software call, a block of software code, a line of software code, a software source code component, a hardware circuit diagram;

using the tool to modify a proposed design diagram in the display device, the proposed design diagram representing a proposed design of the engineering project and versioned separately from the current design diagram, which allows both versions to reside separately in the display device at the same time, the proposed design diagram including at least one proposed design element not present in the current design diagram, the proposed design element having a visual representation in the display device;

using the tool to view at least one detail of a relationship between software source code implementation components; and

using the tool to view a work list in the display device, the work list including specific tasks for transforming the current design into the proposed design of the engineering project, as opposed to including all tasks from design creation to the current design, wherein the work list comprises a refactoring task for refactoring with at least one of the following implementation components;

a software namespace, a software class, a software method, a software call, a block of software code, a software source code component, wherein the transforming comprises visualizing and analyzing the current design for detecting both simple and complex relationships of the implementation components, and wherein at least one task of the work list has tracking information which includes a task status of an intended change to a referenced implementation component, namely, the intended change is unassigned, the intended change is assigned, the intended change is underway, the intended change is tested, or the intended change is completed.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the tool to view a dependency details pane which shows a class and an expression within the class which depends on the other component for all or part of its execution, for a dependency between software source code implementation components, the components represented by design elements displayed by the tool in the display device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the tool to mark a relationship for removal and to view a corresponding updated work list.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the tool to track progress by comparing a pre-removal dependency call list with a post-removal dependency call list, thereby assessing progress toward the proposed design.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the tool to facilitate tracing impact of a work list task on at least one of the following parts of a project context:

testing coverage, database structures, user requirements.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising using the tool to store the work list task in an association with the current design diagram, wherein the current design diagram is versioned and is stored by a version controller.

14. A system comprising:

at least one logical processor;

a memory in operable communication with the at least one logical processor;

a display device;

implementation components which encode in a portion of the memory implementation details of a current implementation of an engineering project, the implementation components comprising at least two of the following;

a software namespace, a software class, a software method, a software call, a block of software code, a line of software code, a software source code component, a hardware circuit diagram;

a current design diagram residing in a current design diagram portion of the memory, the current design diagram representing a current design of the engineering project, the current design diagram including at least two design elements, each of these design elements having a visual representation in the display device, each of these design elements also having a link to at least one implementation component;

a proposed design diagram also residing in the memory, namely, residing in a proposed design diagram portion of the memory, the proposed design diagram representing a proposed design of the engineering project and versioned separately from the current design diagram, which allows both versions to reside separately in the display device at the same time; and

a work list in a portion of the memory, the work list including specific tasks for transforming the current design into the proposed design of the engineering project, as opposed to including all tasks from design creation to the current design, wherein the transforming comprises visualizing and analyzing the current design for detecting both simple and complex relationships of the implementation components, wherein the work list comprises a refactoring task for refactoring with at least one of the following implementation components;

a software namespace, a software class, a software method, a software call, a block of software code, a software source code component, and wherein at least one task of the worklist has tracking information which includes a task status of an intended change to a referenced implementation component, namely, the intended change is unassigned, the intended change is assigned, the intended change is underway, the intended change is tested, or the intended change is completed.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein a task of the work list comprises a change category summarizing an intended change to be made to the current design, and a reference to at least one of:

an implementation component which is to be changed as indicated in the change category, a design element which is to be changed as indicated in the change category.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the change category indicates at least one of the following should be done with the implementation component:

remove, refactor, add.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein another implementation component includes at least one of the following:

software component, project, assembly.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the tracking information further includes task owner.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the implementation components comprise at least one of:

a software source code component, a hardware circuit diagram.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the design elements comprise a Unified Modeling Language model diagram element.