Visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline

• US 9,411,577 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2015
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Elder, Michael D., Russell, Sara, Santos, Lucinio, Shackelford, John-Mason P., Swanke, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US14/705,690
• Publication Number:
  US 20160132325A1
• Time in Patent Office: 461 Days
• Field of Search: 717/120, 717/121
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A method for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline includes a selecting engine to select a phase from a number of phases; a representing engine to represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers; a differentiating engine to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment; and a comparing engine to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application.

Claims

1. A method for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, the method comprising:

representing, with a processor, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers, by;

identifying the target version;

determining if each of the number of versions of the application are rendered as a first identifier or a second identifier; and

rendering the number of versions of the application in the UI as the first identifier or the second identifier;

differentiating, with a processor, a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment, by;

exchanging, based on a selection of a user, the latest-deployed version of the application and the planned version of the application to a foreground or a background of the UI;

overlapping coordinates associated with the latest-deployed version of the application and the planned version of the application in the UI; and

rendering the latest-deployed version of the application as a third identifier in the UI; and

comparing, with a processor, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the identifiers comprise:

a first identifier, the first identifier representing the versions of the application that match the target version; and

a second identifier, the second identifier representing a degree to which the versions of the application match the target version.

3. The method of claim 2, in which the second identifier is rendered as an intensity of a color, a line, a scale, a pattern, or combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the first identifier is at least one of a pattern and a color; and

the second identifier is an intensity of the pattern or the color.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a first identifier that represents the versions of the application that match the target version is a pattern.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the pattern is a series of horizontal lines; and

the second identifier is a weight of the series of horizontal lines.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the properties of the versions of the application comprises a header, an environment, a version, a status, a component, or combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, in which comparing, based on the selection, the properties of the versions for the application comprises:

selecting at least one specific version from the versions of the application; and

displaying the properties of the at least one specific version.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a phase from the number of phases.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the phase is at least one of a development phase, certification phase, a quality assurance phase, a performance test phase, a system integration phrase, and a production phase.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising further comprising displaying, in a comparison user interface, at least one of a status and a component associated with a selected versions.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying the target version comprises selecting a phase; and

a version of the application associated with a selected phase becomes the target version.

13. A method for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, the system comprising:

selecting, with a processor, a phase from a number of phases, wherein;

a phase is a stage of development for an application; and

each phase has multiple versions of an application;

representing, with a processor via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers, wherein;

the identifiers comprise;

a first identifier, which is a pattern, to represent the versions of the application that match the target version; and

a second identifier, which is an intensity of the pattern, to represent a degree to which the versions of the application match the target version; and

a third identifier, which is a color, to represent whether a version is a latest-deployed version of the application; and

the phases are represented as columns;

differentiating, with a processor, a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment; and

comparing, with a processor based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application, wherein the properties that are compared include a header, an environment, a version, a status, a component, or combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein representing, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of an application compared against a target version of the application across the phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented with identifiers comprises:

representing several applications compared against a target version of the several applications across phases of a release pipeline, the congruency for the number of versions of the application represented as identifiers; and

displaying, via the UI, the release pipeline for the several applications.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the phase is at least one of a development phase, certification phase, a quality assurance phase, a performance test phase, a system integration phrase, and a production phase.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying a comparison user interface that displays a number of properties of selected versions of the application.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying, in the comparison user interface, at least one of a status and a component associated with the selected versions.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a status comprises at least one of a unit tests pass, an integration candidate, a quality assurance manager review pass, a manual quality assurance pass, and a unit tested.