Managing the product of temporary groups in a community

• US 8,954,481 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fay, Peter, Feigenbaum, Barry Alan, Woodward, Elizabeth Vera, Yan, Shunguo
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US13/467,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20130304772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1/1, 707/758, 707/802, 707/617, 707/736, 707/102, 707/748, 717/171, 717/138, 717/101, 717/124, 705/7
• US Class Current: 707/821
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for managing the products of a sub-community operating within a community are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The sub-community is defined in an application executing on a data processing system using a processor and a memory. The community comprises a set of members working for a common objective. The sub-community comprises a subset of the set of members working for a part of the common objective. The defining of the sub-community also configures a closing condition for the sub-community. A plurality of members is added to the sub-community. The sub-community is created.

Claims

1. A method for managing products of a sub-community operating within a community, comprising:

defining, in an application executing on a data processing system using a processor and a memory, the sub-community, wherein the community comprises a set of members working to deliver a first product, wherein the sub-community comprises a subset of the set of members working on a second product, wherein the defining configures a closing condition for the sub-community, wherein the second product is a portion of the first product, and wherein the second product comprises several parts including a deliverable product and a byproduct, the byproduct being created during development of the deliverable product;

adding a plurality of members to the sub-community;

creating the sub-community; and

managing the second product of the sub-community using a set of rules, wherein a first rule in the set of rules purges a first part of the second product without saving any information about the first part, wherein a second rule in the set of rules purges a second part of the second product after saving some information about the second part, wherein a third rule archives a third part of the second product, and a fourth rule merges a fourth part of the second product with a third product of another sub-community.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an occurrence of the closing condition;

determining whether to purge a part of the second product of the sub-community prior to the sub-community being closed;

performing an operation relative to the part of the second product responsive to the determining being negative; and

marking the sub-community as closed.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

notifying a member of the sub-community about the occurrence of the closing condition, wherein the member performs an operation relative to the part of the second product of the sub-community responsive to the notification prior to the sub-community being closed.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the operation comprises archiving the part of the second product in an archive whose location is specified during creating the sub-community.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the operation comprises merging the deliverable product of the second product with the first product.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the fourth rule comprises:

determining that the other sub-community comprises a second subset of the set of members, wherein the subset and the second subset of the set of members both include a particular member;

determining that the particular member has an unfinished task in the other sub-community; and

concluding that the fourth part is assigned to the particular member in the sub-community and remains unfinished, wherein the merging is responsive to the concluding.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first rule comprises:

determining whether at least a predetermined portion of resources used by the sub-community are older than a threshold age, wherein the purging the first part without saving any information about the first part is responsive to the determining being affirmative.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the closing condition is a passage of a duration after a time of creation of the sub-community.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the closing condition is an availability of the deliverable product from the sub-community.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a member in the plurality of members is a member of a second community, the adding further comprising:

sending an invitation to the member to join the sub-community.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying a location of an archive where the second product will be stored, the byproduct comprising at least one of a (i) rough draft of the deliverable product, (ii) a wiki entry about the deliverable product, and (iii) write-up about the deliverable product.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating stubs, wherein a stub in stubs corresponds to one of the several parts; and

creating, using the stubs, a timeline of a development process of the second product.

13. A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable storage device including computer usable code for managing products of a sub-community operating within a community, the computer usable code comprising:

computer usable code for defining, in an application executing on a data processing system using a processor and a memory, the sub-community, wherein the community comprises a set of members working to deliver a first product, wherein the sub-community comprises a subset of the set of members working on a second product, wherein the defining configures a closing condition for the sub-community, wherein the second product is a portion of the first product, and wherein the second product comprises several parts including a deliverable product and a byproduct, the byproduct being created during development of the deliverable product;

computer usable code for adding a plurality of members to the sub-community;

computer usable code for creating the sub-community; and

computer usable code for managing the second product of the sub-community using a set of rules, wherein a first rule in the set of rules purges a first part of the second product without saving any information about the first part, wherein a second rule in the set of rules purges a second part of the second product after saving some information about the second part, wherein a third rule archives a third part of the second product, and a fourth rule merges a fourth part of the second product with a third product of another sub-community.

14. The computer usable program product of claim 13, further comprising:

computer usable code for detecting an occurrence of the closing condition;

computer usable code for determining whether to purge a part of the second product of the sub-community prior to the sub-community being closed;

computer usable code for performing an operation relative to the part of the second product responsive to the determining being negative; and

computer usable code for marking the sub-community as closed.

15. The computer usable program product of claim 14, further comprising:

computer usable code for notifying a member of the sub-community about the occurrence of the closing condition, wherein the member performs an operation relative to the part of the second product of the sub-community responsive to the notification prior to the sub-community being closed.

16. The computer usable program product of claim 14, wherein the operation comprises archiving the part of the second product in an archive whose location is specified during creating the sub-community.

17. The computer usable program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage medium in a data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is transferred over a network from a remote data processing system.

18. The computer usable program product of claim 13, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage medium in a server data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is downloaded over a network to a remote data processing system for use in a computer readable storage medium associated with the remote data processing system.

19. The computer usable program product of claim 13, further comprising:

computer usable code for creating stubs, wherein a stub in stubs corresponds to one of the several parts; and

computer usable code for creating, using the stubs, a timeline of a development process of the second product.

20. A data processing system for managing products of a sub-community operating within a community, the data processing system comprising:

a storage device including a storage medium, wherein the storage device stores computer usable program code; and

a processor, wherein the processor executes the computer usable program code, and wherein the computer usable program code comprises;

computer usable code for defining, in an application executing on a data processing system using a processor and a memory, the sub-community, wherein the community comprises a set of members working to deliver a first product, wherein the sub-community comprises a subset of the set of members working on a second product, wherein the defining configures a closing condition for the sub-community, wherein the second product is a portion of the first product, and wherein the second product comprises several parts including a deliverable product and a byproduct, the byproduct being created during development of the deliverable product;

computer usable code for adding a plurality of members to the sub-community;

computer usable code for creating the sub-community; and

computer usable code for managing the second product of the sub-community using a set of rules, wherein a first rule in the set of rules purges a first part of the second product without saving any information about the first part, wherein a second rule in the set of rules purges a second part of the second product after saving some information about the second part, wherein a third rule archives a third part of the second product, and a fourth rule merges a fourth part of the second product with a third product of another sub-community.