Patent ID: 7542946

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for estimating man-hours and costs to complete regulatory certification of a modification to a system, the method comprising: entering one or more components of the system involved in the modification in a computing device; based on the entered one or more components of the system, automatically identifying other components of the system that may be involved in the modification; determining which of the automatically identified other components of the system to include in the modification; identifying which of the entered components and the included other components involved in the modification require regulatory certification activity based on the modification; determining at least one scope of work needed to complete regulatory certification for each of the entered and included other components; wherein determining the other components to include in the modification, identifying which of the entered components and the included other components that require regulatory certification, and determining at least one scope of work further comprises: answering questions to prompt a user to consider at least one comprehensive relationship between the entered components and the included other components; and generating an estimate of man-hours and costs needed to complete regulatory certification based on all of the determined scopes of work.