Patent ID: 7159206

Claim:
A computer-readable medium which causes a computer to operate as a server for managing the development of software by several members of a software development team, comprising: a computer program which is stored on said computer-readable medium; said computer program including an object-module means for performing read and update operations on a linked object structure in a database which has—a) multiple NODE objects that represent respective phases of a software development project and are linked to one PROJECT object, and b) multiple entry sets of CRITERIALIST_ITEM objects where each CRITERIALIST_ITEM object represents a corresponding task in said project and each entry set of CRITERIALIST_ITEM objects is related to a different phase of said project; and, said computer program further including a process-execution-module means having one interface that interacts with said object-module means and having another interface that interacts over a communication network with personal computers of said team members, for automatically starting said phases of each project in an unpredictable sequence by—1) updating each particular CRITERIALIST_ITEM in said database when the corresponding task is completed, 2) sensing when all of the tasks, that are represented by any one entry set of CRITERIALIST_ITEM objects, are completed, and 3) sending a notice on said network to begin the phase of said project which is related to said one entry set.