Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Cooperative computer processing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-01
2001-04-03
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Cooperative computer processing
C709S204000, C709S241000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212549
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer-implemented systems and methods for project management. More particularly, the present invention relates to improved computer-implemented techniques for facilitating collaborative project development and communication among the project participants.
The management of resources (e.g., time, people, materials or the like) and response to changes in the development of a large project has long presented many challenges to the project participants and the managers responsible for bringing the project to completion. Take for example the case of an automobile development project. Automobiles employ engines, which have cylinders that may need to be cast and honed prior to being assembled into the engine. In this very simple example, an automobile company X may engage a supplier Y, who supplies cast cylinders to automobile company X. Automobile company X may also engage a honing contractor Z, who is under contract to receive the cast cylinders from automobile company X and hone them to specification.
To ensure that the engine development portion of the project is on track, a manager in automobile company X may need to track the delivery of cast cylinders (in terms of quality, quantity, delivery date, or the like) from supplier Y. That manager may also need to set up a schedule to ship the cast cylinders received from supplier Y to honing contractor Z for honing. To ensure that the shipment of cast cylinders was not lost after being shipped out to contractor Z, that manager may also need to set up a separate schedule to confirm perhaps a few days after shipping, that honing contractor Z had indeed received the cast cylinders.
Automobile company X may wish to grant supplier Y access to the project management software, or at least to some portion of it, so that supplier Y can tick off its own action item (e.g., shipping a quantity of cast cylinders to automobile company X automobile a certain date). Such access by supplier X is beneficial since an employee in automobile company X may wish to be notified of the shipment in order to ready the quality control group for inspecting the incoming cast cylinders and/or to notify honing contractor Z of the upcoming honing order.
Likewise, automobile company X may also wish to grant honing contractor Z access to the project management software, or at least some portion of it, so that honing contractor Z can receive information pertaining to when and how many of the cast cylinders were actually shipped to him from automobile company X so that contractor Z can more efficiently manage its resources to service the honing order (such as to arrange to rent honing equipment in anticipation of the arrival of the cast cylinders). Such access by honing contractor Z would also benefit automobile company X since honing contractor Z may in turn be able to use the project management software to notify the interested employees within automobile company X of the honing progress, whether and when the honed cylinders were shipped back to automobile company X, and so forth. Honing contractor Z may also want to have the ability to inform to automobile company X, or the employees of automobile company X that are interested in the honing process, that it has perfected a new honing technique and may be able to hone to a closer tolerance if automobile company X can extend the deadline for the delivery of honed cylinders by a few weeks. All these communications are preferably implemented in a single software package to facilitate record keeping and integration with progress tracking.
Communication among the project participants (such as the employees of company X, supplier Y, and honing contractor Z in this example) may be complicated by some real world, practical considerations. For example, automobile company X may prefer, due to confidentiality considerations, that honing contractor Z do not know about the price paid by automobile company X to a competing honing contractor, or to casting supplier Y.
Although the above scenario is discussed in some detail to illustrate some challenges and requirements that may be present when managing a complex project, such a scenario is very simplistic. In the real world, it is not uncommon for a project to require dozens or hundreds of geographically remote participants, each contributing to a portion of the project at various time periods, and many of whom need to work and communicate collaboratively if the project is to be completed timely and efficiently.
In the current art, there exist many types of software programs that may be employed for project management. By way of example, Gantt charts, in either the hardcopy version or the software version, have long been employed by project managers to track tasks and dates relevant to a particular project. To facilitate discussion,
FIG. 1
illustrates a Gantt chart
100
, including thereon bars representing tasks and deadlines. Although only a few tasks are shown on Gantt chart
100
, it should be kept in mind that the example has been vastly simplified to facilitate discussion. In reality, a typical real world Gantt chart may involve thousands or tens of thousands of tasks and may very well fill an entire wall, or even more, if displayed on paper.
On Gantt chart
100
, bars
102
and
104
represent the major tasks that need to be undertaken. Bar
102
may represent, for example, the cylinder development phase, and bar
104
may represent, for example, the engine assembly phase. A dependency line
106
connects the end of bar
102
to the beginning of bar
104
, signifying the fact that cylinder development has to be completed before engine assembly can begin. A milestone
108
marks the completion of the engine assembly phase.
A major task such as cylinder development may be subdivided into subtasks. Gantt chart
100
tracks these subtasks by the use of subtask bars, such as bars
112
and
114
under cylinder development task bar
102
. Bar
112
may represent, for example, the subtask of obtaining cast cylinders, and bar
114
may represent, for example, the subtask of getting the cylinders honed. Subtasks may also have relationships, one of which is illustrated in
FIG. 1
by a dependency line
116
. Dependency line
116
connects the end of bar
112
to the beginning of bar
114
, signifying that cylinder honing can not begin until after the cylinders are casted.
Although Gantt charts, both on paper and in their software versions, have been employed successfully in bringing many projects to completion, there are disadvantages. By way of example, one of the weaknesses of the traditional Gantt chart approach is the inability to allow a project participant to easily filter through the voluminous data related to a project in order to focus in only on data and/or deadlines that are relevant to that particular user in a specified time period. Take for example the case of an employee of automobile company X, who are involved in or interacting with multiple departments (e.g., cylinder development, clutch ordering, paint testing, etc.). The traditional Gantt chart approach does not allow this employee to easily find out, for example, what action items he needs to take on a specified day or a specified week across the multiple departments involved.
A Gantt chart typically deals with only tasks (and subtasks), the task commencement dates, and deadlines. During a project, they are many times when a project participant needs to communicate different types of information, other than tasks and dates, with other project participants. By way of example, a project participant may wish to employ the project management software to communicate to those interested that a new piston design has been selected and also include a drawing of the newly designed piston in the communication. The redesign of the piston may impact those in cylinder design (including our supplier Y and honing contractor Z). However, the typical Gantt chart does not provide a facility to allow project participants interested in or impacted by the piston design c
Bouchard Eugene E.
Page John D.
Sriram Venkat R.
Stanelle Scott E.
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
NexPrise Inc.
Vu Viet D.
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