Patent ID: 8667465

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for estimating a creation time for a version of a software project, the version comprising a plurality of software components and at least some of said software components being available in two or more versions with only one version of a software component being included in a software project version, the method comprising: (A) determining a first set of two or more software component versions and a second set of two or more software component versions, the first set of two or more software component versions comprising versions of software components which are included in the version of the software project and the second set of two or more software component versions comprising later versions of the software components, wherein at least one software component version in the first set is not present in the second set; (B) via at least one processor, examining the creation times of the software component versions of the first set and the second set to determine the creation time for the version of the software project by (B1) comparing the creation times for each software component which has a version in each of the first set and the second set, and (B2) selecting as the estimated creation time for the version of the software project that time which is the latest of the component creation times of versions of software components in the first set of two or more software component versions which is not later than a component creation time of a corresponding version of the software component in the second set of two or more software component versions.