Patent ID: 8484065
Filing Date: 2013-07-09
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented system for selecting a workflow path of a software development project comprising: a criteria engine stored on a computer readable storage medium and executable by a processor to evaluate project criteria of the software development project at one or more steps in an evaluation phase of a first enterprise development process responsive to a change in the project criteria comprising at least one of a change request, a change in cost estimates, a change in a scale of the software development project, a change to a list of impacted enterprise applications, and a change reflecting that more than one enterprise application has been subsequently identified as being impacted, wherein the project criteria comprises information about parameters of the software development project, and wherein the evaluation phase comprises a static workflow that includes a plurality of static workflow paths through the static workflow, each of the plurality of static workflow paths includes a static set of steps, the criteria engine further executable to determine at the one or more steps whether the software development project should proceed to one of a next step in a currently selected path of the plurality of static workflow paths and a next step in a different path of the plurality of static workflow paths in the evaluation phase based on the evaluation of the project criteria responsive to the change in the project criteria and route the software development project to one of the next step in the currently selected path and the next step in the different path based on the determination; wherein the determination and routing are based on an estimate of the number of hours needed to complete the software development project and a pre-approval by a sponsor to bypass one or more steps when the estimate is below a threshold, wherein a first workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises a technical assessment step, an estimation level of effort (LOE) step, an information technology (IT) define review step, a define approval step, a discover planning step, a requirements modeling step, a contract LOE step, an IT discover review step, a discover approval step, and a design step, wherein a second workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises the technical assessment and the design step, wherein a third workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises the technical assessment, the estimation LOE step, and the design step, wherein a fourth workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises the technical assessment step, the estimation LOE step, the define approval step, and the design step, wherein a fifth workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises the technical assessment step, the estimation LOE step, the IT define review step, the define approval step, and the design step, wherein a sixth workflow path of the plurality of static workflow paths comprises the technical assessment step, the estimation LOE step, the IT define review step, the define approval step, the discover planning step, the requirements modeling step, the contract LOE step, the IT discover review step, and the design step, wherein the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth workflow paths are different, wherein only small software development projects or ultra-small development projects are eligible for one of the plurality of static workflow paths of the evaluation phase, wherein small software development projects are defined as in a range of about 2,000 or fewer hours and not impacting more than one enterprise application, and wherein ultra-small development projects are defined as in a range of 300 or fewer hours.