Work item tracking system for projects

• US 20060218028A1
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kelly, Kevin C., Guckenheimer, Sam
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,760 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations

Abstract

A work item tracking system that provides for processing of more than one type of work item. Work item types may be defined using a data structure. Fields and characteristics of the work item are defined within the work item type definition. Programs within the work item tracking system may use this information to create, modify and otherwise process work items of a single type or to form links between work items of different types.

Claims

1. A method of processing work items in a computer system having computer storage media with computer data storage locations associated therewith, the method comprising:

providing a set of work item characteristics;

creating a definition of a first type of work item, the definition comprising a first subset of the work item characteristics in the set; and

creating in the computer storage media a data structure representing a work item from the definition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the set of work item characteristics comprises a set of fields that may be included in a work item; and

creating the definition of a first type of work item comprises creating a first subset of fields in the set of work item characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein creating a definition of a first type of work item comprises specifying format information for an input/output operation associated with at least one field in the first subset of fields.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein creating in the computer storage media a data structure comprises creating a data structure with computer data storage locations associated with fields in the definition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a definition of a first type of work item comprises defining a first set of work item states.

6. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising:

creating a definition of a second type of work item, the definition comprising a second subset of the work item characteristics in the set, the second subset of work item characteristics being at least partially different from the first subset of work item characteristics; and

creating in the computer storage media a second data structure representing a second work item from the definition of the second type of work item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a) creating a definition of a first type of work item comprises specifying a plurality of allowed states; and

b) creating a data structure in the computer storage media comprises storing in a computer data storage location a value indicative of one of the plurality of allowed states.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein creating a definition of a first type of work item comprises specifying a state transition rule.

9. The method of claim 1,

a) wherein creating a definition of a first type of work item comprises storing a representation of the definition of a type of work item in a second computer storage media;

and

b) the method further comprises;

i) reading at least a portion of the representation of the definition of a type of work item from the second computer storage media;

ii) computing a value based in part on the portion of the representation; and

iii) writing the computed value to the data structure in the computer storage media.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) defining at least one work item of a first work item type comprised of a first set of work item characteristics;

(b) defining at least one work item of a second work item type comprised of a second set of work item characteristics, the second set being at least partially different from the first set; and

(c) processing, in one operation, work items of the first work item type and the second work item type.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising:

associating a first set of work item data with a first set of fields comprising the first set of work item characteristics; and

associating a second set of work item data with a second set of fields comprising the second set of work item characteristics.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein processing, in one operation, comprises automatically changing work item data in the first set of work item data in response to a change in the second set of work item data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein processing, in one operation, comprises reporting the first set of work item data to a user in response to receiving user data.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein processing, in one operation, comprises linking at least one work item of the first work item type to at least one work item of the second work item type.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein processing, in one operation, comprises linking a work item to a work item data file associated with the work item.

20. The data structure of claim 14, wherein the at least one characteristic of the work item comprises a link to at least one work item of a different work item type.

16. A computer-readable medium for use in connection with a system for processing work items, the computer-readable medium having stored thereon a 30 data structure representing a work item type, a work item of the work item type being capable of being processed by the system for processing work items to take one of a set of states, the work item being capable of being displayed for a user on a human perceptible medium, the data structure comprising:

(a) a first data region containing data representing a definition of a field in the work item to contain data related to at least one characteristic of the work item;

(b) a second data region containing data defining information related to the set of states; and

(c) a third data region containing data defining information related to properties for displaying the work item on the human perceptible medium.

17. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the data structure is defined in XML.

18. The data structure of claim 16, further comprising:

a data region containing data defining information related to state transition rules for processing the work item.

19. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the at least one characteristic of the work item comprises an affiliation with a group of work items, at least one work item in the group being of a different work item type.