Patent ID: 7076764

Claim:
A system for maintaining compliance among a plurality of software modules comprising: a plurality of software modules that together form a software project, and which include dependencies between at least two or more of said software modules; a plurality of specifications that are associated with said plurality of software modules, including a first specification associated with a first software module and a second specification associated with a second software module, and wherein for each software module the associated specification specifies rules defining any dependencies that are allowed, forbidden, or required within that software module; and a microprocessor that combines the rules from the plurality of specifications to form a set of ordered rules for the software project, including resolving any conflicts between different specifications for different software modules, and then checks the compliance of any dependencies within the software project against said set of ordered rules, wherein the step of resolving includes one of applying rules that specify which of the first specification and the second specification has precedence, and, parsing the specifications for explicit precedence statements.