Managing requirements planning in a collaborative computing environment

• US 8,996,982 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2006
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clemm, Geoffrey M., Akbulut, Muhtar B., Khan, Aamer, Cudmore, Sean P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US11/616,571
• Publication Number:
  US 20080163072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,016 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/229, 715/230, 715/231, 715/273, 715/255
• US Class Current: 715/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for managing requirements planning in a collaborative computing environment. In one embodiment of the invention, a requirements planning management method can include identifying each approving stakeholder for a version of a requirement in a requirements plan, creating traceability links between each approving stakeholder and the version of the requirement, and notifying each approving stakeholder having a traceability link to the version of the requirement whenever a new version of the requirement is proposed by a stakeholder. The method also can include merging multiple versions of the requirement into a single document, displaying the single document to a viewing stakeholder, and marking up the single document to reflect differences between the single document and a most recent version of the requirement for the viewing stakeholder.

Claims

1. A requirements planning management method comprising:

identifying in a requirements planning system executing in memory of a host computing platform, each approving stakeholder for a version of a requirement in a requirements plan of requirements for a software system;

creating traceability links between each approving stakeholder and the version of the requirement, each traceability link connecting a stakeholder with a specific version of the requirement requiring the approval of the stakeholder and tracking different approval status values for different versions of a corresponding requirement;

notifying each approving stakeholder having the traceability link to the version of the requirement whenever a new version of the requirement is proposed by the stakeholder;

merging all versions of the requirement into a single document for displaying the single document to a viewing approving stakeholder; and

marking up the single document to reflect differences between the single document and a most recent version of the requirement approved by the viewing approving stakeholder.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a plurality of annotations to the requirement;

displaying the annotations in the single document in association with corresponding sections of the requirement; and

,

highlighting selected ones of the annotations that have been either added, removed, or changed since a most recent viewing of the requirement by the viewing stakeholder.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of annotations includes a textual description field and a reference to a section of the requirement to which the annotation logically applies, the reference identifying a pair of locations and also a scope indicator.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of annotations includes one of a comment, an objection, and a question.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying an annotation to the version of the requirement;

associating the annotation with a range of versions of the requirement; and

,

filtering a display of the annotation in association with the displaying of the single document according to the range of versions of the requirement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a question type annotation to the version of the requirement;

identifying a stakeholder responsible for creating the version of the requirement; and

,

notifying the identified stakeholder of the question to solicit a comment type annotation by the identified stakeholder as a response to the question type annotation.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking up the single document to indicate a source version of the requirement for each section in the single document.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the marked up single document to the viewing approving stakeholder.

9. A requirements planning data processing system comprising:

a requirements planning system executing in memory by at least one processor of a host computing platform and configured to maintain traceability links between a version of a requirement in a requirement plan of requirements for a software system and different stakeholders approving of the version of the requirement, each traceability link connecting a stakeholder with a specific version of the requirement requiring the approval of the stakeholder and tracking different approval status values for different versions of a corresponding requirement;

an annotation manager coupled to an annotation data store, the annotation manager comprising program code enabled to accept an annotation for a version of a requirement and to store the annotation within the annotation data store; and

a displayer for displaying a single document merged from all versions of the requirement to a viewing approving stakeholder, wherein the single document is marked to reflect differences between the single document and a most recent version of the requirement approved by the viewing approving stakeholder.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the annotation includes one of a comment, an objection, and a question.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the single document is further marked to indicate a source version of the requirement for each section in the single document.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the annotation includes a textual description field and a reference to a section of the requirement to which the annotation logically applies, the reference identifying a pair of locations and also a scope indicator.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable storage medium embodying computer usable program code for requirements planning management, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for identifying each approving stakeholder for a version of a requirement in a requirements plan of requirements for a software system;

computer usable program code for creating traceability links between each approving stakeholder and the version of the requirement, each traceability link connecting a stakeholder with a specific version of the requirement requiring the approval of the stakeholder and tracking different approval status values for different versions of a corresponding requirement;

computer usable program code for notifying each approving stakeholder having the traceability link to the version of the requirement whenever a new version of the requirement is proposed by the stakeholder;

computer usable program code for merging all versions of the requirement into a single document for displaying the single document to a viewing approving stakeholder; and

computer usable program code for marking up the single document to reflect differences between the single document and a most recent version of the requirement approved by the viewing approving stakeholder.

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

computer usable program code for applying a plurality of annotations to the requirement;

computer usable program code for displaying the annotations in the single document in association with corresponding sections of the requirement; and

,

computer usable program code for highlighting selected ones of the annotations that have been either added, removed, or changed since a most recent viewing of the requirement by the viewing stakeholder.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the plurality of annotations includes a textual description field and a reference to a section of the requirement to which the annotation logically applies, the reference identifying a pair of locations and also a scope indicator.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the plurality of annotations includes one of a comment, an objection, and a question.

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

computer usable program code for applying an annotation to the version of the requirement;

computer usable program code for associating the annotation with a range of versions of the requirement; and

,

computer usable program code for filtering a display of the annotation in association with the displaying of the single document according to the range of versions of the requirement.

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

computer usable program code for applying a question type annotation to the version of the requirement;

computer usable program code for identifying a stakeholder responsible for creating the version of the requirement; and

,

computer usable program code for notifying the identified stakeholder of the question to solicit a comment type annotation by the identified stakeholder as a response to the question type annotation.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising computer usable program code for marking up the single document to indicate a source version of the requirement for each section in the single document.

20. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising computer usable program code for displaying the marked up single document to the viewing approving stakeholder.