Patent ID: 8402480

Claim:
A method for transforming task data to an output swimlane timeline diagram, the method comprising: receiving, using one or more processors, task data from a plurality of source files generated by a plurality of first application applications, the task data including data for source tasks; processing, using one or more processors, the task data in accordance with user selected filters and display preferences; and generating, using one or more processors, a swimlane timeline diagram for the source tasks in accordance with the processed task data, and further in accordance with a diagramming software format, wherein generating the swimlane timeline diagram includes: processing the source tasks according to task outline numbers corresponding to respective source tasks; determining an outline level from a user preference; titling the swimlane timeline diagram with a title diagram element oriented at the top of the swimlane timeline diagram based on the outline level; creating a horizontally oriented timeline from a first plurality of diagram elements spanning the swimlane timeline diagram and oriented directly under the title diagram element; and creating a visual representation of a plurality of horizontally oriented swimlanes using a second plurality of diagram elements, wherein creating the visual representation of each horizontally oriented swimlane comprises: creating a swimlane title element with text of the derived from a parent source task in the task data, the swimlane title element oriented at an end of the swimlane and configured to span the swimlane vertically; and creating one or more swimlane child elements including information from one or more descendent source tasks exclusive to each swimlane child element, the descendent source tasks being descendents from the parent source task and present in the task data; wherein the outline numbers represent a plurality of outline levels, wherein the task outline numbers have the form “n1.n2.n3 . . . ” and wherein processing the task outline numbers includes: evaluating task data for outline number “n1” in the source file to determine the earliest start date and latest finish date over all tasks, the outline number “n1” corresponding to the outline level; designating the earliest start date and the latest finish data as the start and finish date for a Portfolio View timeline; determining the swim lane title element text for each horizontally oriented swim lane based on the starting outline number task; and placing each source file's associated “n1.n2” interval and milestone tasks within their respective horizontally oriented swim lane.