Management and notification of object model changes

• US 9,946,988 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhola, Saurabh, Denner, Gary, Keohan, Paula M., Loughran, Michael J., Meade, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Mincarelli, Jan P
• Application Number:
  US13/247,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20130080349A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,393 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711, 705348
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for managing development of a model set comprised of one or more object models by a plurality of model developers. Each model developer may be considered an interested party. For example, when a model developer changes an area of the model, that person becomes the most interested party in other changes made to the same area. An automated mechanism is provided to track changes made to the model set and informs interested parties as changes are made or after changes are made to the model based on a weighting system. In one embodiment, the weighting system may be based on a distance from the changed portions and on the amount of time since a party last made a change to the same area.

Claims

1. A computer program product for managing development of a model set, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising;

computer-readable program code configured to, responsive to receiving a change made by a first party to a changed model element from a model editor tool, query an object history database to identify a plurality of candidate parties having one or more past interactions with a related model element affected by the change to the changed model element, the related model element being determined according to model relationships of the model set stored in the object history database;

computer-readable program code configured to generate a data model for determining relationships between the plurality of candidate parties and model elements, comprising assigning, for each candidate party, a numerical weight value representing a relevancy of the changed model element to the candidate party, based on an initial level of interest to the related model element when the candidate party first interacted with the related model element and based on an amount of time elapsed since the candidate party last interacted with the related model element;

computer-readable program code configured to generate a change notification indicating the change to the changed model element and the first party making the change, wherein the change notification further comprises a description of how the related model element is affected by the change to the changed model elements;

computer-readable program code configured to selectively transmit, by operation of one or more computer processors, the change notification to each of two or more parties of the plurality of candidate parties via a data communication network, responsive to determining that each of the two or more parties have a corresponding numerical weight value within the data model that exceeds a threshold value; and

computer-readable program code configured to dynamically update information within the data model indicating a relevancy of the changed model element to a second party of the two or more parties, by modifying the numerical weight value for the second party in a manner dynamically determined based on a response of the second party to the transmitted change notification.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises:

computer-readable program code to store change information associated with the changed model element in an object history log, wherein the change information comprises a source of the changed model element and datetime information of the change information.

3. The computer-readable program code of claim 1, wherein at least one related model element comprises a model element previously changed by a corresponding candidate party;

and

wherein the numerical weight value between the corresponding candidate party and the changed model element comprises a weight value calculated based on a model relationship between the changed model element and the previously changed model element.

4. The computer-readable program code of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises:

computer-readable program code to decrease the numerical weight value between the changed model element and a first candidate party, the first candidate party having modified the changed model element prior to a party that changed the changed model element.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the past interaction with the related model element comprises:

a subscription request to be notified of changes to the related model element.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the change notification comprises a description of the change and the numerical weight value, and wherein the change notification is selected from at least one of an e-mail message and a real-time alert message.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises:

computer-readable program code configured to receive a feedback message from at least one of the candidate parties indicating approval of the changed model element;

computer-readable program code configured to, responsive to receiving approval of the changed model element, submit change information associated with the changed model element to a source control system.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code further comprises:

computer-readable program code configured to generate a feedback notification for a party that modified the changed model element responsive to determining the changed model element affects the related model element.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein computer-readable program code configured to calculate the numerical weight value based on a number of levels comprising the model relationship between the changed model element and the related model element and based on an amount of time elapsed since the past interaction of the candidate party with the related model element.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code configured to identify the one or more candidate parties comprises:

computer-readable program code configured to identify one or more candidate parties having a past interaction with a related version of the corresponding related model element.

12. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer-readable program code configured to modify the numerical weight value between at least one of the candidate parties and the changed model element based on acceptance of the change notification.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer-readable program code configured to modify the weighted relationship of at least one of the candidate parties based on acceptance of the change notification further comprises:

computer-readable program code configured to increase the numerical weight value between the at least one of the candidate parties and the changed model element responsive to acceptance of the change notification;

computer-readable program code configured to decrease the numerical weight value between the at least one of the candidate parties and the changed model element responsive to acceptance of the change notification.

14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein modifying the numerical weight value for the second party in a manner dynamically determined based on a response of the second party to the transmitted change notification comprises:

increasing the numerical weight value when the second party sends a feedback message in response to the received change notification; and

decreasing the numerical weight value when the second party ignores the received change notification.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein modifying the numerical weight value for the second party in a manner dynamically determined based on a response of the second party to the transmitted change notification comprises:

increasing the numerical weight value when the second party sends a feedback message in response to the received change notification; and

decreasing the numerical weight value when the second party ignores the received change notification.

11. A system for managing development of a model set, comprising:

one or more computer processors;

a memory containing a program, which when executed by the one or more computer processors is configured to perform an operation comprising;

responsive to receiving a change made by a first party to a changed model element from a model editor tool, querying an object history database to identify a plurality of candidate parties having one or more past interactions with a related model element affected by the change to the changed model element, the related model element being determined according to model relationships of the model set stored in the object history database;

generating a data model for determining relationships between the plurality of candidate parties and model elements, comprising assigning, for each candidate party, a numerical weight value representing a relevancy of the changed model element to the candidate party, based on an initial level of interest to the related model element when the candidate party first interacted with the related model element and based on an amount of time elapsed since the candidate party last interacted with the related model element;

generating a change notification indicating the change to the changed model element and the first party making the change, wherein the change notification further comprises a description of how the related model element is affected by the change to the changed model elements;

selectively transmitting, by operation of the one or more computer processors, the change notification to each of two or more parties of the plurality of candidate parties via a data communication network, responsive to determining that each of the two or more parties have a corresponding numerical weight value within the data model that exceeds a threshold value; and

dynamically updating information within the data model indicating a relevancy of the changed model element to a second party of the two or more parties, by modifying the numerical weight value for the second party in a manner dynamically determined based on a response of the second party to the transmitted change notification.