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

• US 9,417,869 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• 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:
  US14/537,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20160132324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 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 system 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 system for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, the system comprising:

a selecting engine, comprising a processor, to select a phase from a number of phases;

a representing engine, comprising a processor, 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 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;

a differentiating engine, comprising a processor, to differentiate 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

a comparing engine, comprising a processor, to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application.

2. The system 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 system of claim 2, in which the second identifier comprises an intensity of a color, a varying line weight, a scale value, a pattern, or combinations thereof.

4. The system 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 system of claim 1, in which the properties of the versions of the application comprise a header, an environment, a version, a status, a component, or combinations thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, in which the comparing engine compares, based on the selection, the properties of the versions for the application by:

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

displaying the properties of the at least one specific version.

7. The system 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.

8. The system 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.

9. A computer program product for visualizing a congruency of versions of an application across phases of a release pipeline, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, said tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to;

select 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;

represent, via a user interface (UI), a congruency for a number of versions of 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, 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 phase are represented as columns;

differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment; and

compare, 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; and

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

10. The product of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, cause said processor to select a phase from the number of phases.

11. The product of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, cause said processor to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment.

12. The product of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed, cause said processor to compare, based on a selection, properties of the versions of the application.

13. The product of claim 9, in which 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.

14. The product of claim 9, wherein a first identifier that represents the versions of the application that match the target version is a pattern.

15. The product of claim 9, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed cause said processor to display a comparison user interface that displays a number of properties of selected versions of the application.

16. The product of claim 15, further comprising computer readable program code comprising program instructions that, when executed cause said processor to display, in the comparison user interface, at least one of a status and a component associated with the selected versions.

17. The product of claim 16, 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.

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

a selecting engine, comprising a processor, to select 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;

a representing engine, comprising a processor, 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, 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;

a differentiating engine, comprising a processor, to differentiate a latest-deployed version of the application against a planned version of the application in a particular environment; and

a comparing engine, comprising a processor, to compare, 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.