Abstract:
Techniques are provided for capturing the ID of a work item, and the corresponding effort level information, as a part of the actual check-in process of the artifacts into the underlying change management system. This effort information can then be propagated to an external system for subsequent reporting and analysis. In one embodiment, tasks (or similar items such as issues or bugs) are entered into a common task or issue tracking system. As part of this process each task is assigned a unique identifier. A “call-out” is added to the source control management system which captures the effort level and task ID associated with the proposed change. The data entered is validated to ensure that the task ID is valid and that the effort entered is within a valid range. If the data entered is valid, the change to the underlying artifact is allowed to proceed and the effort and task information is stored for later analysis. If the data is not valid, the proposed change is rejected and an appropriate error message is returned to the user.

Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
     This application claims the benefit of the provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/844,309 filed Sep. 12, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to the capturing of effort (time) expended on individual tasks in software development and related disciplines such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Chip Design, Board Design etc. 
     BACKGROUND 
     A key requirement for effectively managing software development and similar projects is the ability to track effort level information (i.e. how many hours were spent on performing the activity) for a particular task or activity. This information is critical in assessing whether a project is on schedule and is often used to determine the cost and/or billing of a particular project. 
     Existing systems of tracking effort level require the user to first check in their artifacts in various systems such as the source control management (SCM) system and then go to a separate time tracking system and enter their effort level information for the particular task. The problem with this set up is that people often forget to update the time tracking system after “checking in” their artifacts. Also, since one may update the time tracking system sometime after the actual completion of work, it is likely that it will have less accuracy than information which is input at the time the change is made. 
     The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. 
     SUMMARY 
     Techniques are provided for capturing the ID of a work item, and the corresponding effort level information, as a part of the actual check-in process of the artifacts into the underlying change management system. This effort information can then be propagated to an external system for subsequent reporting and analysis. A summary of the steps involved in this process are outlined below. 
     Tasks (or similar items such as issues or bugs) are entered into a common task or issue tracking system. As part of this process each task is assigned a unique identifier. 
     A “call-out” is added to the source control management system which captures the effort level and task ID associated with the proposed change. 
     The data entered is validated to ensure that the task ID is valid and that the effort entered is within a valid range. 
     If the data entered is valid, the change to the underlying artifact is allowed to proceed and the effort and task information is stored for later analysis. If the data is not valid, the proposed change is rejected and an appropriate error message is returned to the user. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system that may be used for capturing, validating and recording effort levels, according to an embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is flowchart illustrating a process flow for capturing, validating and recording effort levels, according to an embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 3A  is block diagram illustrating a Screen Capture showing a form template inserted in CVS notepad checkin dialog box; 
         FIG. 3B  is a block diagram illustrating a Screen Capture showing a form template inserted in CVS Eclipse checkin dialog box; and 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of a computer system upon which embodiments of the invention may be implemented. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention. 
     Major Components 
       FIG. 1  illustrates the major components of a system designed to implement the techniques described herein.  FIG. 1  also illustrates the relationship between those components and existing systems. A system that implements the techniques described herein may work with existing Source Control Management (SCM) systems ( FIG. 1  ( a ) &amp; ( j ). These systems are sometimes also referred to as software change management systems. Popular examples of SCM systems include but are not limited to CVS, PVCS, Clear Case, Accurev, Subversion and Perforce. SCM systems are designed to capture, store and manage access and provide version control for software source files, designs and similar files. SCM systems have basic facilities to allow or deny changes, the invention extends these facilities to capture effort and related task information as part of the routine change management process. 
     The Change Capture component ( FIG. 1  ( b )) intercepts proposed changes in the SCM system and captures the required effort and task information related to the proposed change, “calls out” to the Data Validation Component ( FIG. 1  ( c )) passing along all relevant details of the proposed change and receives the response from the Data Validation Component (accept, reject etc.). To facilitate the proper entry of the data, the change control component inserts a template into the SCM system commit form to allow users to enter appropriate information (A sample screen capture of the form template is show in  FIGS. 3   a  (form template in notepad editor) and  3   b  (form template in eclipse)). Depending on the response, the Change Capture component either allows the proposed change to proceed into the SCM system or rejects it and provides the user with an appropriate error message. 
     The Data Validation component ( FIG. 1  ( c )) validates that the task ID is valid and that the hours entered are within an acceptable range. It takes input from the Change Capture components, retrieves the valid data ranges and other information from the Policy DB ( FIG. 1(   g )). It can also call out to the Issue Tracking System to validate Issue IDs or retrieve relevant information. 
     The Policy Administration Component ( FIG. 1  ( d ) and ( f ) allows the administrator to define and manage valid data ranges and userIDs for authorized users. The information defined in this component is stored in the Policy DB ( FIG. 1(   g )). The Policy DB ( FIG. 1  ( g )) stores the policy rules and related information along with the names and userlDs of authorized users. This DB would typically be implemented using an industry standard relational database management system (RDBMS), although other implementations would be acceptable. 
     As with SCM systems, the techniques described herein are designed to work with existing Issue Tracking Systems and Issue Tracking Databases ( FIG. 1  ( h ) and ( i )). These systems are used to record and track both tasks that need to be completed for a project as well as open bugs and issues. Common examples of these systems include, but need not be limited to Bugzilla and Team Track. 
     Capturing, Validating and Recording Effort Level by Task 
       FIG. 2  outlines the process flow for capturing, validating and recording the effort level by task evaluating using the components described above. The process begins with the developer submitting the proposed change(s) to the source control system ( FIG. 2 , ( a )). 
     When the change is submitted the variables necessary (user, taskID and effort) to evaluate the requested change are captured as part of this process. The data captured is outlined below:
         Since any user submitting a change would have already been authenticated by the SCM system, the userID of the requesting user would be automatically captured by the system   The taskID associated with the proposed change   Effort level (typically expressed in minutes, hours or days)   Any other variable which might be helpful in subsequent analysis of the effort data such as root cause.       

     Once the developer has submitted the change, the program sends the information captured to the Data Validation Component ( FIG. 2 , ( b )). Note, the changes are not “committed” to the source control system at this time, but are held in an in-process state. 
     When the Data Validation Component receives the proposed changes ( FIG. 2 , ( c )), the program retrieves the information necessary and validates that the taskID is valid (by querying the issue tracking system) and that the effort entered is within the valid range (by retrieving this range from the Policy DB). 
     If either the taskID is invalid or the effort level is not within the allow range the specified the change is rejected, with the SCM system being notified to reject the change and the end-user receiving an appropriate error message. If the data values are valid, the SCM system is notified to accept the change and “commit” it to the system. At this point the effort level and associated taskID is also recorded for later reporting. The effort data captured could be sent to the issue tracking system and recorded along with there with the task or it could be stored in a separate reporting database for later analysis. 
       FIG. 3   a  is a block diagram illustrating a Screen Capture showing a form template inserted in CVS notepad checkin dialog box. 
       FIG. 3   b  is a block diagram illustrating a Screen Capture showing a form template inserted in CVS Eclipse checkin dialog box. 
     Hardware Overview 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system  400  upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented. Computer system  400  includes a bus  402  or other communication mechanism for communicating information, and a processor  404  coupled with bus  402  for processing information. Computer system  400  also includes a main memory  406 , such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus  402  for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor  404 . Main memory  406  also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor  404 . Computer system  400  further includes a read only memory (ROM)  408  or other static storage device coupled to bus  402  for storing static information and instructions for processor  404 . A storage device  410 , such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus  402  for storing information and instructions. 
     Computer system  400  may be coupled via bus  402  to a display  412 , such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user. An input device  414 , including alphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to bus  402  for communicating information and command selections to processor  404 . Another type of user input device is cursor control  416 , such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor  404  and for controlling cursor movement on display  412 . This input device typically has two degrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis (e.g., x) and a second axis (e.g., y), that allows the device to specify positions in a plane. 
     The invention is related to the use of computer system  400  for implementing the techniques described herein. According to one embodiment of the invention, those techniques are performed by computer system  400  in response to processor  404  executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory  406 . Such instructions may be read into main memory  406  from another machine-readable medium, such as storage device  410 . Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in main memory  406  causes processor  404  to perform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement the invention. Thus, embodiments of the invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software. 
     The term “machine-readable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operation in a specific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using computer system  400 , various machine-readable media are involved, for example, in providing instructions to processor  404  for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to storage media and transmission media. Storage media includes both non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage device  410 . Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory  406 . Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise bus  402 . Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications. All such media must be tangible to enable the instructions carried by the media to be detected by a physical mechanism that reads the instructions into a machine. 
     Common forms of machine-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read. 
     Various forms of machine-readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor  404  for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk of a remote computer. The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over a telephone line using a modem. A modem local to computer system  400  can receive the data on the telephone line and use an infra-red transmitter to convert the data to an infra-red signal. An infra-red detector can receive the data carried in the infra-red signal and appropriate circuitry can place the data on bus  402 . Bus  402  carries the data to main memory  406 , from which processor  404  retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by main memory  406  may optionally be stored on storage device  410  either before or after execution by processor  404 . 
     Computer system  400  also includes a communication interface  418  coupled to bus  402 . Communication interface  418  provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link  420  that is connected to a local network  422 . For example, communication interface  418  may be an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. As another example, communication interface  418  may be a local area network (LAN) card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface  418  sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information. 
     Network link  420  typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. For example, network link  420  may provide a connection through local network  422  to a host computer  424  or to data equipment operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP)  426 . ISP  426  in turn provides data communication services through the world wide packet data communication network now commonly referred to as the “Internet”  428 . Local network  422  and Internet  428  both use electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams. The signals through the various networks and the signals on network link  420  and through communication interface  418 , which carry the digital data to and from computer system  400 , are exemplary forms of carrier waves transporting the information. 
     Computer system  400  can send messages and receive data, including program code, through the network(s), network link  420  and communication interface  418 . In the Internet example, a server  430  might transmit a requested code for an application program through Internet  428 , ISP  426 , local network  422  and communication interface  418 . 
     The received code may be executed by processor  404  as it is received, and/or stored in storage device  410 , or other non-volatile storage for later execution. In this manner, computer system  400  may obtain application code in the form of a carrier wave. 
     In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementation to implementation. Thus, the sole and exclusive indicator of what is the invention, and is intended by the applicants to be the invention, is the set of claims that issue from this application, in the specific form in which such claims issue, including any subsequent correction. Any definitions expressly set forth herein for terms contained in such claims shall govern the meaning of such terms as used in the claims. Hence, no limitation, element, property, feature, advantage or attribute that is not expressly recited in a claim should limit the scope of such claim in any way. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.