Patent ID: 7188093

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for use in determining whether circular dependency exists in a plurality of computer-implemented dependency rules of at least one computer program, the method comprising: generating and storing for at least some of the plurality of dependency rules a plurality of exclusion lists, each exclusion list being associated with at least one independent object of a dependency rule and listing as an item a dependent object of the dependency rule; where an item listed in one of the generated and stored exclusion lists corresponds to an independent object having its own exclusion list with at least one item, incorporating and storing the at least one item into the generated and stored exclusion list; determining whether at least one of the generated and stored exclusion lists for an independent object includes an item corresponding to the independent object; identifying circular dependency where at least one generated and stored exclusion list for an independent object includes an item corresponding to the independent object; and preventing an undesirable consequence of the circular dependency in the at least one computer program in response to identifying the circular dependency having the at least one generated and stored exclusion list for the independent object.