Patent Document ID: 7904875
Application ID: 11299444

Base Claim:
1. At a computer system, the computer system including a processor and system memory, a method for configuring the offering of technical assistance services for a developing software product, the developing software product being developed by a plurality of different product development groups, one or more other software developers developing other software products that are to depend on at least a portion of the developing software product, the method comprising: an act of receiving a service policy configuration defining one or more service models for the developing software product, the developing software product having a functionality defined by the plurality of different development groups, changes to the functionality of the developing software product being determined by at least one group of the plurality of different development groups, such that changes to the functionality of the developing software product are determined independent of the one or more other software developers developing other software products that are to depend on at least a portion of the developing software product, each service model corresponding to a specified type of software developer that is developing another software product that is to depend on at least a portion of the functionality of the developing software product, each service model defining a type and quantity of technical assistance services to be offered to a software developer when it is determined that the software developer is of the corresponding specified type of software developer; an act of receiving a software product taxonomy for the developing software product, the software product taxonomy including one or more themes corresponding to different portions of the developing software product's functionality, the software product taxonomy indicating one or more technical assistance services for each theme that are to be available to the other software developers developing software products that are to depend on the developing software product; an act of receiving a service profile for an entity that is developing another software product that is to depend on the developing software product, the profile including context on how the entity intends to design the other software product to depend on the functionality of the developing software product, wherein changes to the functionality of the developing software product cause changes in the context on how the entity intends to design the other software product; an act of identifying a type of the software developer corresponding to the entity; an act of assigning a specified service model, from among the defined one or more service models, to the entity based on the identified type of software developer corresponding to the entity; an act of the processor identifying portions of the developing software product's functionality that are to be used to cause the other software product to depend on the developing software product as indicated in the context; an act of identifying one or more themes applicable to the entity based on the identified portions of the developing software product's functionality; and an act of authorizing the entity to request technical assistance services associated with the identified one or more themes in accordance with identified service model in response to receiving the service profile.

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Claim 3:
3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the act of receiving a software product taxonomy for the developing software product comprises an act of receiving a software product taxonomy developed through collaboration between a technical services program administrator and a product development group developing the developing software product.