Patent ID: 7917535

Claim:
A data structure for representing at least one component, the data structure embedded in a non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium, the data structure comprising: a first layer including a first component attribute value specifying a first characteristic of the component; a first task membership value specifying at least a first task included in a first set of tasks associated with at least the first component attribute value, wherein the first task is included in a plurality of predefined tasks; a second layer including a second component attribute value specifying a second characteristic of the component; a second task membership value specifying at least a second task included in a second set of tasks associated with at least the second component attribute value, wherein the second task is included in the plurality of predefined tasks; and a third layer including an additional task membership value modifying the first set of tasks associated with the first component attribute value, wherein the third layer includes a layer relationship that is stronger than the first layer such that the additional task membership value adds, removes, or overrides at least one of the plurality of predefined tasks included in the first set of tasks associated with the first component attribute value.