Document analysis, commenting, and reporting system

• US 9,535,982 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2013
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Verma, Kunal, Kass, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahn, Sangwoo
• Application Number:
  US13/854,481
• Publication Number:
  US 20130226927A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking

Abstract

A document analysis, commenting, and reporting system provides tools that automate quality assurance analysis tailored to specific document types. As one example, the specific document type may be a requirements specification and the system may tag different parts of requirements, including actors, entities, modes, and a remainder. However, the flexibility of the system permits analysis of any other document type, such as instruction manuals and best practices guides. The system helps avoid confusion over the document when it is delivered because of non-standard terms, ambiguous language, conflicts between document sections, incomplete or inaccurate descriptions, size and complexity of the document, and other issues.

Claims

1. A product comprising:

a non-transitory machine readable memory;

an ontology model stored in the memory and defining a hierarchy of document structure instance classes comprising a root class, a child class, and class definition relationships between the document structure instance classes; and

logic stored in the memory for execution by a processor, the logic comprising;

document structure instance identification logic configured to cause the processor to;

identify a first document structure instance and a second document structure instance in a document;

classification logic configured to;

analyze the first document structure instance against the ontology model to determine a first classification for the first document structure instance among the document structure instance classes;

analyze the second document structure instance against the ontology model to determine a second classification for the second document structure instance among the document structure instance classes, wherein a horizontal relationship exists between the first classification and the second classification such that neither of the first and second classifications are ancestors of the other; and

instance relationship analysis logic configured to cause the processor to;

analyze the class definition relationships to determine whether a change in the first classification affects the second classification, and

based on the analysis, output an analysis result that indicates whether the first classification affects the second classification, wherein the analysis result facilitates determining whether conflicts exist between the first and second document structure instances of the document, which in turn facilitates improving an accuracy, completeness, and clarity of the document.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein the ontology model further comprises:

an instance class search term facilitating analysis of the first and second document structure instances against the ontology model.

3. The product of claim 1, wherein the class definition relationship comprises:

an ‘

affects’

relationship between a first instance class among the instance classes and a second instance class among the instance classes.

4. The product of claim 3, wherein the classification logic is configured to search for a class search term in the first document structure instance.

5. The product of claim 1, wherein the analysis result comprises a relationship notification message inserted into the document.

6. The product of claim 1, wherein the document structure instance identification logic is further configured to cause the processor to determine a horizontal relationship between the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance.

7. The product of claim 1, wherein the document structure instance identification logic is further configured to cause the processor to determine a vertical relationship between the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance.

8. The product of claim 1, wherein the root class is a requirement class and the child class includes a security requirement class and a time requirement class.

9. The product of claim 1, wherein the output of the analysis result comprises an output of the classification logic and an output of the instance relationship logic.

10. The product of claim 1, wherein the instance relationship analysis logic is configured to cause the processor to operate in conjunction with the classification logic to determine whether the first classification affects the second classification.

11. A method for analyzing a document, the method comprising:

parsing, by a processor, an ontology model stored in a memory and identifying a hierarchy of document structure instance classes comprising a root class, a child class, and class definition relationships between the document structure instance classes as defined in the ontology model;

identifying, by document structure instance identification logic, a first document structure instance and a second document structure instance in the document;

analyzing, by classification logic, the first document structure instance against the ontology model to;

determine a first classification for the first document structure instance among the document structure instance classes; and

analyze the second document structure instance against the ontology model to determine a second classification for the second document structure instance among the document structure instance classes, wherein a horizontal relationship exists between the first classification and the second classification such that neither of the first and second classifications are ancestors of the other;

analyzing, by instance relationship analysis logic, the class definition relationships to determine whether a change in the first classification affects the second classification; and

based on the analyzing, outputting an analysis result that indicates whether the first classification affects the second classification, wherein the analysis result facilitates determining whether conflicts exist between the first and second document structure instances of the document, which in turn facilitates improving an accuracy, completeness, and clarity of the document.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

facilitating the analysis of the first and second document structure instances against the ontology model by using an instance class search term.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein analyzing the first document structure against the ontology model further comprises:

determining an ‘

affects’

relationship between a first instance class among the instance classes and a second instance class among the instance classes.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the classification logic is configured to search for a class search term in the first document structure instance.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the analysis result comprises a relationship notification message inserted into the document.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance in the document further comprises determining a horizontal relationship between the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance in the document further comprises determining a vertical relationship between the first document structure instance and the second document structure instance.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the root class is a requirement class and the child class includes a security requirement class and a time requirement class.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein outputting the analysis result comprises outputting a result of the classification logic and a result of the instance relationship logic.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the instance relationship analysis logic is configured to operate in conjunction with the classification logic to determine whether the first classification affects the second classification.