Patent Document ID: 7574329
Application ID: 09680604

Base Claim:
1. A method for constructing a decision tracking object model for handling an issue related to a design of a product using computer system that enables collaboration between a plurality of users, the method performed in a computer system and comprising: providing a question object, an answer object, a decision object, and a design issue object, wherein each of the question object, the answer object, the decision object, and the design issue object encapsulates at least one article of information and at least one relationship to another object; encapsulating a question related to the issue as an article of information in the question object; encapsulating an answer related to the question as an article of information in the answer object; encapsulating a decision made based on the answer as an article of information in the design issue object; encapsulating the issue related to the design of the product as an article of information in the design issue object; providing a decision tracking object model comprising the question object, the answer object, the decision object, and the design issue object; storing the decision tracking object model in an object model database on a computer readable storage medium; and providing at least one of the question object, the answer object, the decision object, and the design issue object to the plurality of users.

---

Claim 4:
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the question object, the answer object, and the decision object are stored in a separate relational database, the method further comprising using foreign keys to maintain associations between each of the question, the answer, and the decision.