Patent ID: 8495564

Claim:
A method for merging changed elements in a software development environment, the software development environment comprising a set of at least one defect associated with a software project, the software project comprising a plurality of elements, each defect being associated with at least one changed element comprising a modified version of an element, the method comprising: creating a defect record for a defect when the defect or a change request is entered in the software development environment, wherein the defect record comprises a list of elements in the software development environment that are changed as a result of the defect or the change request; obtaining the list of changed elements in the defect record, the list comprising at least one changed element identifier and a corresponding target, the defect record comprising the list of changed elements associated with the defect; and for each changed element thus listed, attempting a first automated merge of said changed element with its corresponding target; wherein, the creating the defect record comprises: creating a first defect record for a first defect or a first change request, the first defect record comprising a first list of software system elements that are changed as a result of the first defect or the first change request; and creating a second defect record for a second defect or a second change request, the second defect record comprising a second list of software system elements that are changed as a result of the second defect or the second change request; the obtaining the list of changed elements comprises: querying the first and the second defect records; and building a third list comprising the changed software system elements included in the first and the second defect records and respective target software system elements to which the changed software system elements in the third list is to be merged; and the attempting the first automated merge comprises: automatically merging the changed software system elements in the third list with the respective target software system elements.