Patent ID: 7877737

Claim:
A method for generating a graph data representation having a plurality of nodes corresponding to respective systems engineering requirements, the method comprising a hardware processor performing the steps of: accessing first data representation of a collection of systems requirements and relationships therebetween; and generating a second data representation of the systems requirements comprising: accessing respective systems requirements of the collection of systems requirements; creating a node to correspond to each accessed systems requirement of the collection of systems requirements if a node corresponding to the accessed systems requirement does not exist; and creating an edge between the created or pre-existing node and each node corresponding to a systems requirement having a relationship with the accessed systems requirement; wherein a hierarchical graphic visualization of the second data representation is generated by the hardware processor performing the steps of: inserting at least one dummy node as an intermediary step while generating the graphic visualization, wherein at least one third edge is provided for connecting the at least one dummy node with the plurality of second nodes, wherein the at least one second edge and the at least one third edge collectively preserve the relationships previously defined by the at least one second edge; and removing a dummy node of the at least one dummy node, and connecting together the third edges that were previously connected to the removed dummy node wherein each node of the second data representation corresponds to a different systems requirement of the collection of systems requirements and is a node of said graph data representation.