Patent ID: 8335839

Claim:
A method of planning a network architecture, comprising: receiving at a host computer system a request from a user computer to initiate a network architecture planning process, wherein the network architecture planning process relates to a modification to a portion of the public switched telephone network; in response to the request, transmitting an electronic file comprising a first display screen to the user computer, wherein the first display screen comprises a first one or more program elements, the first one or more program elements comprising a question relating to a parameter of the network architecture; receiving at the host computer system a first response to the question; transmitting at least a second electronic file comprising a second display screen to the user computer, wherein the second display screen comprises a second one or more program elements, the second one or more program elements comprising context-sensitive content based on at least one previous response; receiving at the host computer system at least a second response to the at least a second display screen; at the host computer, determining at least a first action based on the first response and the at least a second response, wherein the at least a first action comprises adding at least one configuration item to a list of configuration items, wherein the configuration item comprises an ordering unit of a model within the network architecture, and wherein the list of configuration items comprise at least a portion of a network architecture plan; transmitting information relating to the at least a first action for display at the user computer; saving a sequence of responses comprising in part the first one or more program elements comprising a question relating to a parameter of the network architecture, the first response to the question, the second one or more program elements comprising context-sensitive content based on at least one previous response and the second response saving a corresponding configuration list; and using the saved sequence of responses to reevaluate the saved configuration list in view of changed requirements; wherein all communications transferred between the user computer and the host computer system are transmitted over a network and wherein the first one or more program elements and the second one or more program elements are based on a logical sequence of a plurality of steps of the network planning process.