JPH05298077A - Customizing development procedure support method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] When developing software with a large number of people, each development department can define its own development procedure and support software development based on each development procedure. [Configuration] Application procedure determination unit 1 for defining and storing application procedures
01, an application procedure unit 103, and a tool matching unit 107 that guides the user by determining whether the tool to be activated is suitable for the development procedure. [Effect] The design according to the application procedure can be guided only by defining the application procedure, and the labor saving of the software development support system construction can be achieved. Also, by guiding the application procedure, the design content between the design documents can be changed. Can maintain consistency.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a design support system for interactively editing specifications when software is developed by a large number of people. In particular, a plurality of development departments perform software development based on their respective development procedures. The present invention relates to a method for defining a development procedure suitable for a support system for a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When developing large-scale software,
A large number of people share the design of many documents and programs. In the case of shared development by a large number of people, in order to prevent different developers from having different document contents or variations in quality, we have standardized the development method in the past and have each developer comply with it. Even in the supporting system, it is necessary to hold the standard development procedure and guide the design procedure so that the developer can comply.

In the prior art, Japanese Patent Application No. 2-73318 is used.
In the invention of “design support method”, there is a description of a method of storing a development procedure, presenting the procedure to a developer, and guiding a design. The invention is a technique for inducing a design by showing the fact that a developer tries to develop in an incorrect procedure with respect to the stored development procedure.

[0004]

When actually carrying out shared development, a team of a plurality of developers is formed in each development department, and the development target is shared among the development departments. In addition, it is the current situation that the software is divided among the developers in each development department and the software is developed in parallel in the plurality of development departments. In this case, it is rare for all developers in all development departments to follow the standard development procedure, and in reality, the document development order specified in the standard development procedure may be changed according to the development deadline, etc. Each development department designs based on its own development procedure, such as not designing.

However, the above-mentioned prior art does not take into consideration the fact that a plurality of development departments replace the standard development procedure, which has already been defined, with their own development procedure when performing each software development, and support the software development. The system to be used had to be rebuilt according to each development procedure. Also, because each development department defines its own development procedure to carry out development, there will be multiple development procedures at a certain time, and many designers will develop software based on their development procedures at the same time. The conventional technique does not consider the point of performing In addition, the software development procedure is stipulated to specify a standard and to be made to comply with each developer. However, under the present circumstances, for example, due to the short delivery time of development, if the development is performed in compliance with the standard development procedure, the delivery time may not be met in time, and the developer has modified part of the standard development procedure for development. Each development department has its own characteristics. For example, a certain development department has the characteristics that it is completed quickly but the quality is poor, or conversely it is completed late but the quality is good. Each development department devises the development method by defining the development procedure by itself in order to prevent quality deterioration and delivery delay.

[0006] An object of the present invention is to save labor for rebuilding a software development support system based on each development procedure when each development department defines its own development procedure and carries out software development. , And the development procedure defined by each development department can be reused in other departments.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the present invention, each development department can define its own development procedure, and the development provided by the software development support system based on each development procedure. Determine the effectiveness of the tool,
By guiding the user, it supports the software development of the user. Also, the development procedure defined and applied by one development department can be reused in other departments.

[0008]

In a software design support system for interactively editing specifications when developing software by a large number of people, a step of storing a development procedure defined by a user, a step of holding a list of document types, and the storage A step of determining a document editing tool suitable for the development procedure from the list of development procedures and document types to be performed and a step of storing the determination result are provided. In order to guide the development based on the development procedure defined by the user, when the user launches the development tool for designing the document, based on the result of first judging the effectiveness of the tool, if appropriate, Added a step to launch the tool and display if it is not suitable. This supports software design based on the development procedure defined by each development department.

[0009]

EXAMPLE First, a first example will be described. Figure 1
FIG. 3 is a functional configuration diagram for realizing the first embodiment.

Reference numeral 101 denotes an application procedure determination unit that determines a development procedure (development document and development order) to be applied in software development in a department to which a user (especially, a collection of development departments) belongs. Reference numeral 102 denotes a department user correspondence unit that stores which development department the user belongs to, and whether the user is the organizer or the development designer. The application procedure determination unit 101 first reads the contents stored in the department user correspondence unit 102, and specifies the department to which the user who intends to apply and the general or designer. As a result of the identification, the procedure can be applied when the user is the organizer, and the procedure cannot be applied when the user is the development designer. This is for preventing each user who belongs to a certain department from complicating the management of the development document in the department by defining and developing his / her own development procedure. Reference numeral 103 denotes an application section and an application procedure section that stores the applied development procedure. The application procedure unit 103 has the application procedure determination unit 101 at the start of development.
And will be rejected at the end of development. The application procedure unit 103 basically does not allow the change of the contents during the period up to the end of the development when the user in charge of the development department decides and the development in the development department is started. This is because changing the procedure in the middle of development should not confuse the designer. However, in the middle of development, there are cases where various external factors occur and the procedure must be changed. For example, if the applied procedure has advanced to a certain extent and the procedure has to be changed due to factors such as a sudden reduction in the development deadline, regarding the development procedure that has not yet been started in the department after the current development stage. Can be changed. The detailed functional block diagram of the application procedure determining unit 101 will be described later with reference to FIG. 3, the detailed content of the department user response unit 102 with reference to FIG. 4, and the detailed content of the application procedure unit 103 with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 104 is a specification data editing unit for the user to interactively design specifications. The specification data editing unit registers the specification content input by the user in the specification data unit 105. Further, the specification data editing unit refers to the specifications of the already designed specifications from the specification data unit 105, accepts the user's corrections and changes, and registers again in the specification data unit 105. The specification data editing unit edits multiple documents required for software development. A multiple document is, for example, a "module specification" that defines the details of a module that represents a certain development unit of software, or a "call relationship diagram" that defines a calling relationship between modules.
And so on. Therefore, the specification data unit 105 stores the data represented by the document or the drawing. Reference numeral 106 is a specification data generation unit for generating another document from one document. For example, a "module specification" document is generated from a "call related diagram" document. The specification data generation unit has a plurality of generation means other than the above example. A tool matching unit 107 reads the application procedure 103 and determines whether the specification data editing unit 104 or the specification data generation unit 106 that the user intends to execute follows the application procedure and, if not, presents the fact to the user. Is. Details of the tool matching unit 107 will be described later with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram for realizing this embodiment.

Reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that processes and executes a program that realizes this embodiment. Reference numeral 202 denotes a pointing device, such as a mouse, input by the user. 203
Is a keyboard, which is a device for the user to input specification data and the like. Reference numeral 204 is a CRT that outputs the processing result of the CPU to the user. Reference numeral 205 denotes a main memory that stores this program and data to be handled. An external storage device 206 stores the program, data to be handled, and the like. A printer 207 outputs the processing result of the CPU to the user.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram for explaining the application procedure determining unit 101 of FIG. 1 in detail. The part surrounded by the dotted line in the figure is the application procedure determining unit 101. The application procedure determination unit 101 first executes the user identification unit 301 in order to identify the department to which the user who applies the procedure belongs and the department manager or the development designer. The user identification unit 301 first receives the name or identifier of the user from the user who intends to apply it. Next, the contents stored in the department user correspondence unit 102 are read, and the department to which the user belongs and the department general or development designer are specified from the received user name or identifier. If the user is in charge of the department, the procedure for applying the development procedure can be continued, but if the user is a development designer,
A message such as "Development procedure cannot be applied" is displayed and the procedure for application is completed.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the stored contents of the department user correspondence unit 102. The department user correspondence unit 102 is composed of, for example, a department name column 401, a user name column 402, and a position column 403.
In FIG. 4, two departments, "FAX development department" and "exchanger development department", and user names and positions belonging to each department are defined. Therefore, if the user name is, for example, “Yamada”, the user identification unit 301 searches the user name column 402 of the department user corresponding unit 102 for the name “Yamada” received from the user, and finds the corresponding department in the department name column 401. Further, the post is specified from the post column 403. The user identification unit 301
In this case, the department to which “Yamada” belongs is “FAX Development Department” and the title is “Union”. Since “Yamada” is “Undo”, the procedure of the next application procedure can be continuously executed. When the user name is, for example, “Tanaka”, the user identification unit 301 consequently obtains the department to which the user belongs “FAX development department” and the title “development designer”. Therefore, in the case of "Tanaka", a message such as "Development procedure cannot be applied" is displayed and the procedure application procedure ends. Although the name of the user is used to represent the user in the above example, the identifier of the user may be used instead. For example, "User ID: 123456789". in this case,
If the user name column 402 of the department user correspondence unit 102 is used as a user identifier column and the content that the user identification unit 301 receives from the user is also an identifier instead of the user name, the above-described user identification unit 301 can be easily realized. Is. A procedure definition unit 302 defines a procedure to be applied. The procedure defining unit 302 executes the process for the user who the user identifying unit 301 determines to be “collective”. The procedure definition unit 302 displays the procedure definition screen shown in FIG. 5 to the user so that the user can interactively define the application procedure.

FIG. 5 shows a layout example of the procedure definition screen. A development procedure unit 303 stores the development procedure applied in the past. The contents stored in the development procedure section are shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 shows two development procedures applied in the past. Each procedure is expressed in the following four columns. A procedure No column 601 for identifying the procedure, a procedure content column 602 for briefly explaining the content of the procedure, a development phase column 603 for defining the order of development as an applied procedure, and a document to be developed in each development phase. A development document field 604 to be defined. First, the procedure No. Column 601 is "1"
The case of the procedure will be described. This procedure indicates that it is a "standard development procedure" called "standard No. H234" defined in a certain "A factory". The application procedure consists of four development phases, and defines the documents to be developed in each phase. In this case, the development phase is represented by a numerical value, which means that the development proceeds in ascending numerical order. In the case of the development phase “1”, four types of development documents, “call related diagram”, “module related diagram”, “state transition table”, and “table related diagram” are developed. In the same phase, development may start from any document.
However, if one development phase is not completed, we cannot proceed to the next development phase. When the development of the four types of documents is completed, the process proceeds to the next development phase “2”, and the development of the two types of documents of the “module specification” and the “table specification” is started. Next, the procedure number column 60
If 1 is the procedure of "2", the "delay-time-oriented development procedure"
There are three development phases and six types of development documents. The procedure stored in the development procedure unit 303 in FIG. 3 is two kinds in FIG. 6, but a plurality of procedures including other development procedures can be stored.

In FIG. 7, the user applies the procedure N as an application procedure.
o. The example which defined the procedure of 2 is shown. As a user operation for defining, the application procedure No. is selected from the pull-down menu 701 of the “development procedure list”. "2" is designated by the mouse cursor 702 which is a pointing device. In this case, the procedure No. stored in the development procedure unit 303. The development procedure of No. 2 is read, and the procedure No. “2”, and the content of the application procedure is displayed in the application procedure column 704. As the applicable department column 705, the user inputs from the keyboard or the department specified by the user identification unit 301 is used.

When the user designates “confirmation” indicated by 706 with the mouse cursor 702, the application procedure definition unit 302 registers the development procedure defined by the user in the application procedure unit 103 as application to the development department, and applies the application. Complete the procedure. Also, the user clicks "End" in 707 with the mouse cursor 7
If specified by 02, the defined procedure is rejected and the application procedure is terminated. When the user specifies the “application case” indicated by 708 with the mouse cursor 702, the application procedure definition unit 303
Executes the application case display unit 304. The application case display section reads the development history of the procedure applied in the past stored in the procedure application case section 305, and displays and prints it on a CRT or a printer.

FIG. 8 shows the contents stored in the procedure application case section 305. The procedure application case section is composed of, for example, the following six types of columns. The procedure number column 801 is the number of the procedure applied in the past.
Represents. The applied department column 802 represents the name of the department to which the application is applied. The applied product column 803 represents the name of the product developed by applying the procedure. The development period column 804 represents the period in which the product was developed by applying the procedure. The development scale column 805 shows the number of steps of the developed product. The development personnel column 806 represents the personnel invested in the development. By displaying these contents of the procedure application case section 305 to the user when defining the procedure, the same situation as in the past, for example, the development period is within half a year, the number of development personnel is less than 10 and the estimated development scale is 20 kilosteps or less. The purpose is to make it easier for you to determine what is the optimal procedure you are going to apply by examining the past application procedure rather than the condition. The procedure determined by the user to be “fixed” is registered in the application procedure section 103.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the contents of the application procedure section 103.
In FIG. 9, the applicable department (column 901) is “FAX development department”, and the development procedure No. The “application procedure No. column 902” is “2”, which indicates that the application procedure has the contents of columns 903 and 904.
The contents stored in the application procedure unit 103 are retained until the development is completed. After the development is completed, the procedure registration unit 306 registers the contents of the applied procedure in the procedure application case unit 305 in association with the information such as the applied product, the development period, and the development personnel. Further, when the application procedure is a new procedure different from the procedure stored in the development procedure section 303, the application procedure is registered in the application procedure section 303. When all the registration procedures are completed, the application procedure of the development department stored in the application procedure unit 103 is rejected.

FIG. 10 shows the tool matching unit 107 shown in FIG.
It is a functional block diagram showing the content of the in detail. A portion surrounded by a dotted line in the drawing is a tool matching portion 107. Tool matching part 1
Reference numeral 07 assists the designer in editing the specification data and generating the specification data based on the applied development procedure. When the development procedure is applied, the tool matching unit 107 first activates the support tool validity determination unit 1001. The support tool validity determination unit 1001 reads the application procedure stored in the application procedure unit 103, the document editor list unit 1002, and the inter-document generation tool list unit 1003. The document editor list section 1002 holds a list of document editing functions supported by the specification data editing section 104.
The contents of the document editor list portion 1002 are shown in FIG. The document editor list part is N of the document
An o column, a document name column, and a name of a program for editing a document, that is, a tool name column. Figure 10
The specification data editing unit 104 is a set of programs defined in the tool name column of the document editor list unit 1003.

In the example described in FIG. 11, 12 types of documents are defined. The inter-document generation tool list unit 1003 holds a list of generation functions supported by the specification data generation unit. FIG. 12 shows the contents of the inter-document creation tool list part 1003. No column, generation tool name column, source document name column,
And the name field of the generated document. The generation source document is a document that is an input to the generation tool, and the generation destination document is a document that is an output to the generation tool. Further, the set of programs defined in the generation tool column is the specification data generation unit 106 in FIG. In FIG. 12, 20 types of generation tools are defined.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic representation of the relationship between the document of FIG. 11 and the document generation tool of FIG. The squares in this figure represent documents and the circles represent generation tools.

FIG. 14 shows the relationship between the document and the generation tool and the development phase when the development procedure of the procedure No. 1 shown in FIG. 6 is applied. FIG. 14 shows a document and a generation tool suitable for the application development procedure. In the example in this figure, all documents are suitable for the development procedure, but some generation tools are not suitable. Not suitable for the development procedure means that a document to be designed according to the order of the development phase is generated from the document developed in the later phase.
In other words, generation tools that are out of order in the development phase are not suitable for the development procedure.

FIG. 15 shows the relationship between the document and the generation tool and the development phase when the development procedure shown in FIG. 9 is applied. There are 6 types of documents and 4 types of generation tools suitable for the development procedure shown in the example of this figure. Therefore, the meaning that it is not suitable for the development procedure means a document which is not designed by the applied development procedure in addition to the above-mentioned contents. In the case of this figure, there are 6 types of documents and 16 types of generation tools that are not suitable for the application procedure.

The support tool validity judging section 100 shown in FIG.
1 has a function of specifying a document and a generation tool suitable for the application procedure. As a material for determining whether it is suitable or not, an application procedure section 103 (contents are shown in FIG. 9), a document editor list section 1002 (contents are shown in FIG. 11), an inter-document generation tool list (contents are shown in FIG. 1).
2) is used. The determination result of the support tool determination unit 1001 is stored in the determination result unit 1004.

FIG. 16 shows an example of the contents of the judgment result section 1004. In FIG. 16, the contents of the determination result section are composed of the following four columns. The procedure number column 1401 shows the number of the development procedure being applied. The applied department column 1402 represents the development department being applied. The editor column 1403 has a document No. held by the specification data editing unit 104 and a determination result as to whether each document is suitable for the development procedure being applied. The generation tool column 1404 has the No. of the generation tool held by the specification data generation unit 106 and the determination result as to whether each tool is suitable for the development procedure being applied. Editor field 140
3 and “o” in the generation tool column 1404 indicate that the development procedure being applied is suitable, and “x” indicates that the development procedure is not suitable. The determination algorithm of the support tool determination unit 1001 will be described later with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 10, when a development designer tries to start designing, the user identification unit 1005 identifies the development department to which the user belongs. The user identification unit has the same function as the user identification unit 301 shown in FIG. When the user tries to design a document using the specification data editing unit 104, the specification data editing control unit 1006 determines the application development procedure stored in the determination result unit 1004 from the development department of the user identified by the user identification unit 1005. Read the judgment result, search whether the document the user is going to design is suitable for the development procedure from the judgment result, start the editor of the document if it is suitable, and inform the user to that effect. It has a display function. Specification data generation control unit 1007
Similarly to the specification data edit control unit 1006, when a user tries to start the generation tool of the specification data generation unit 106 to generate another document from a document, it is previously determined whether the generation tool is suitable for the development procedure. If it is not suitable, the generation tool is started, and if it is not suitable, it is displayed to the user. Figure 1
Reference numeral 7 represents the contents displayed by the specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 when the user tries to design.

FIGS. 18 (a) and 18 (b) are flowcharts showing an algorithm for realizing the application procedure determining unit 101 of FIG. First, FIG. 18A will be described.

User identification step 1601 determines the development department and post of the user. If the job title is the development department, the following steps are executed, but if the job title is the development designer, the process ends. In the command input step 1602, the user inputs a command from the keyboard 203 or the mouse 202. A command determination step 1603 analyzes the command received from the user in step 1602 and determines the next step to be executed according to the content of the command. When the input from the user is the numerical value indicating the “development procedure No.”, step 1604 is executed. If it is a "procedure application case display" command, step 1606; if it is "procedure definition" command, step 16
08, if it is a "confirm" command, step 1610,
If it is an "end" command, the next process is executed to end. Step 1604 is a step of reading the development procedure of the procedure No input by the user from the contents stored in the development procedure section 303. Step 1605 is step 1604
The development procedure and procedure number read by are output to the CRT 204 and presented to the user. The process is then step 160.
Return to 2. Step 1606 is read from the application procedure case section 305 when the user inputs a command for displaying the procedure application case. In step 1607, the procedure application example read in step 1606 is output to the CRT 204. The process then returns to step 1602. Step 1608 is a step of inputting a development phase when the user inputs a procedure definition command. In step 1609, the development document corresponding to the development phase input in step 1608 is input. The process then returns to step 1602. Step 1610 is a step of determining whether or not the procedure to be applied is defined when the user inputs the "confirm" command. When the user has defined the application procedure, the application procedure is registered in the application procedure unit 103 in step 1611. If the user has not defined the application procedure, the message of "Define the application procedure and then confirm" is displayed and the processing is performed in step 1602.
Return to. After registering the application procedure in step 1611, the present algorithm ends. If the user inputs an end command in step 1602, this algorithm ends. By displaying the procedure application case and defining the application procedure at the same time as in the example of this algorithm, the user can define the procedure to be applied in the past, the applied product, the development product of the application destination, the development period, and the number of personnel. It is possible to define a suitable development procedure by referring to the past examples similar to the characteristics of the self-development department with reference to the above.

FIG. 19 shows a part of an algorithm for realizing the function of the support tool validity judging section 1001 shown in FIG. 10, and judges the validity for the document editor. In step 1701, all the documents stored in the document editor list portion 1002 are read. In step 1702, the determination results of all the documents previously read are initialized as “invalid” (“X” mark in this algorithm). In step 1703, the name of one development document is read from the development procedure stored in the application procedure section 103 defined by the user. Step 170
In step 1703, it is determined whether or not there is a development document to be read. That is, it is determined whether all the development documents stored in the application procedure unit 103 have been read. If there is a document that has not been read, the process proceeds to step 1705 and the determination process is continued. If all have been read, step 1706
Go to and perform the last process. In step 1705, the read document is defined as “valid” (marked with “◯” in this algorithm). The process proceeds to step 1703, and the next development document reading step 170
Continue to 3. In step 1706, the determination results of all the documents are registered in the determination result part 1004. The contents of the determination result to be registered have already been shown in the editor column 1403 in FIG. After executing step 1706, the present algorithm ends.

FIG. 20 shows a part of an algorithm for realizing the function of the support tool validity judging section 1001 shown in FIG. 10, and judges the validity of the document generation tool. In step 1801, the names of all the generation tools stored in the inter-document generation tool list part 1003 shown in FIG. 10 are read. In step 1802, the determination results of all the previously read generation tools are defined as “invalid” (mark “x” in this algorithm) and initialized. In step 1803, the determination in the generation tool between the development documents defined as the same development phase is executed.
Details are shown in FIG. Step 1804 performs a determination in the generation tool between documents between different development phases. Details are shown in FIG. Step 1805
Registers the determination results of all the generation tools in the determination result part 1004 shown in FIG.

FIG. 21 shows a detailed algorithm of step 1803 shown in FIG. The determination of the generation tool between documents developed in the same phase means, for example, in FIG. 15, the effectiveness of the generation tool “No8” between the “module specifications” and “table specifications” documents developed in the development phase 1. It is to make a judgment. In step 1901, a variable "(development phase)" that holds the value of the development phase to be determined is defined, and the value "1" is substituted for initialization. Step 1902 determines the compensatory relationship between the value of the (development phase) variable and the maximum value of the development phase defined by the application procedure. (Development phase) When the variable value is less than or equal to the maximum value, that is, when it is determined that “(variable value) ≦ (maximum value)”, the process proceeds to step 1903 to continue the process. When the variable value is larger than the maximum value, that is, when “(variable value)> (maximum value)” is determined, the present algorithm is ended. In step 1903, the names of all development documents corresponding to the development phase indicated by the value of the (development phase) variable are read. In step 1904, it is determined whether the number of previously read development documents is one or two or more. When the number of read development documents is one, the process proceeds to step 1909, and the value of (development phase) is incremented by "1" to shift to the determination process of the next development phase. If more than one match, next step 19
Execute 05. In step 1905, two documents are selected from all the documents previously read. Step 1906
Determines whether all the previous two document combinations have been selected. If all the combinations have been selected, the process advances to step 1909 to proceed to the determination process of the next development phase. If all combinations have not been selected, the process proceeds to the next step 1907. In step 1907, the contents stored in the inter-document generation tool list portion 1003 shown in FIG. 10 are searched to determine whether a generation tool is defined between the two documents selected previously. If the generation tool is defined, the next step 1908 is to "enable" the generation tool.
(In this algorithm, it is defined as "○"). If the generation tool is not defined between the two documents, the process moves to step 1905 and the combination of the next two documents is examined.

FIG. 22 shows the detailed algorithm of step 1804 shown in FIG. The determination of the generation tool between documents developed in different phases means, for example, in FIG. 15, the generation tool between the “module specification” document developed in phase 1 and the “call related diagram” document developed in phase 3 No. 2 ”is to judge the effectiveness. In step 2001, "0" is assigned to the "(development phase)" variable that holds the value of the development phase serving as the criterion for initialization, and initialization is performed. Step 2002 increments the value of the (development phase) variable by "1". In step 2003, the magnitude relationship between the variable value of (development phase) and the maximum value of the development phase defined in the application procedure is determined. If the variable value is smaller than the maximum value, that is, if “(variable value) <(maximum value)” is satisfied, the process 200 is performed.
The process proceeds to 4 and the determination process based on the development phase of (variable value) is continued. When the variable value is equal to or larger than the maximum value, that is, when “(variable value) ≧ (maximum value)” is determined, the present algorithm ends. In step 2004, one name of the development document defined in the (development phase) is read from the development procedure stored in the application procedure section 103 defined by the user (this is referred to as document A). Step 2005
Determines in step 2004 whether or not the development document to be read exists. That is, it is determined whether all the development documents stored in the application procedure unit 103 have been read. If there is a document that has not been read, the process proceeds to step 2006 to continue the processing. If all the data has been read, the process returns to step 2002 and the process proceeds to the next (development phase). In step 2006, the value of (development phase) is substituted for the variable that holds the development phase of the generation destination document (generation destination development phase), and initialization is performed. In the case of this algorithm,
(Development phase) represents the development phase of the generation source. In step 2006 (generation destination development phase)
The reason why the variable value is not (1) (development phase) is
This is because the tool for generating a document is effective in the relationship of (development phase) <(development destination development phase), and it is not necessary to check (generation destination development phase) from "1". In step 2007, the value of (generation destination development phase) is incremented by "1". In step 2008, the magnitude relationship between the variable value of (generation destination development phase) and the maximum value of the development phase defined in the application procedure is determined. If “(variable value) ≦ (maximum value)” is determined, step 2009 is executed, and if “(variable value)> (maximum value)” is determined, the process returns to step 2004 and determination processing for another generation source document is performed. To continue. In step 2009, one document name defined in the development phase corresponding to the value of (generation destination development phase) is read (referred to as document B).
In step 2010, it is determined whether or not all the previous generation destination documents have been read. If not all have been read, the process proceeds to step 2011, and if all have been read, the process returns to step 2007 to continue the determination processing in the next (generation destination development phase). In step 2011, it is determined whether a generation tool is defined between the document A that is the generation source and the document B that is the generation destination. When the generation tool is defined, the generation tool is “valid” in step 2012 (“○” in this algorithm).
Mark). If the generation tool is not defined in step 2011, the process returns to step 2009 to continue the determination process regarding the next generation destination document. Figure 2 above
1, the determination result of the generation tool can be obtained by the determination algorithm shown in FIG. 22, and the validity determination result is registered in step 1805 shown in FIG.

23A and 23B are algorithms for realizing the specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 shown in FIG. 10, respectively. First, the implementation algorithm of the specification data edit control unit 1006 will be described with reference to (a). In step 2101, the judgment result corresponding to the document to be started is read. Step 2102
Indicates that the read judgment result is “valid (marked with“ ○ ”in this figure)”
If it is “valid”, step 2
Start the document editor as shown at 103.
If it is not “valid”, as shown in step 2104,
"This document is invalid for the application procedure" is displayed.
Inform users that this document is not suitable for the application procedure. Next, the implementation algorithm of the specification data generation control unit 1006 will be described with reference to (b). In step 2111, the determination result corresponding to the generation tool to be started is read. In step 2112, it is determined whether or not the read determination result is “valid (marked with“ ◯ ”in this figure). If it is“ valid, ”the generation tool is started in step 2113,
If it is not “valid”, “This generation tool is invalid in the application procedure” is displayed and the user is notified that this generation tool is not suitable in the application procedure.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. First
According to the determination result of the support tool validity determining unit 1001 in the above embodiment, there are two types of “valid” and “invalid”.
In the embodiment, the number is increased to three types of "valid", "intermediate" and "invalid". Differences between the first embodiment and the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 15 and 24. FIG. 15 shows the determination result of the support tool validity determination unit 1001 in the case of the application procedure of procedure No2. According to this figure, 6 types of invalid documents and 16 types of generation tools are determined to be “invalid” for more than half of all tools. FIG. 24 shows the determination result in the second embodiment. In FIG. 24, two types of documents are invalid, five types of generation tools are used, and the types of tools determined as “invalid” in the first embodiment are reduced. This will increase the types of support tools that are effective for the application procedure and expand the range of use. In the second embodiment, the next tool is judged as "intermediate". That is, an intermediate document editor and a generation tool between intermediate documents. In the case of FIG. 24, the intermediate document is a document such as “PAD” or “argument sheet”, and the intermediate generation tool is “11” “12” “1”.
3 ”and so on. The intermediate document is a document for connecting the two documents defined in the application procedure. For example, after describing the "module specification" and before describing the "source list" defined in the next development phase,
This is an "argument sheet" generated using the generation tool "9". The intermediate generation tool is a generation tool for generating an intermediate document and a tool for generating a document defined in the next development phase from the intermediate document. For example, the above generation tool “9” is applicable. The judgment result of "intermediate" is not defined in the application procedure, but is clearly effective as a design means.

FIG. 25 shows the determination result of the second embodiment in the procedure No2No application procedure. "Valid (in this figure")
○ "mark", "intermediate (indicated by" △ "in this figure)", "invalid (indicated by" x "in this figure)", each tool is determined into three types. Figure 2
Reference numeral 6 represents an implementation algorithm in the second embodiment of the support tool validity determination unit 1001 shown in FIG. Step 240
Reference numeral 1 is a valid document determination process for determining two types of document "valid" and "invalid" as in the first embodiment. The detailed algorithm is as shown in FIG. Step 2402 is an intermediate document determination process for determining "intermediate" for the document. Of the documents determined to be “invalid”, the documents that can be used as intermediate documents are determined to be “intermediate” using the results of the determination of two types in step 2401.
To determine. The detailed algorithm is shown in FIG. Step 2403 is “valid” or “invalid” for the generation tool
This is a generation tool determination process that executes three types of determinations of "intermediate". The detailed algorithm will be described later with reference to FIGS. 28 and 29.

FIG. 27 is a detailed algorithm of the intermediate document determination processing of step 2402 of FIG. Step 2501 selects two documents to be designed in different development phases that have a determination result of “valid”. Two
The document designed in the development phase of one of the two documents is referred to as "Document A", and the document designed in the subsequent development phase is referred to as "Document B". Step 2502 determines whether all the combinations of the two documents selected have been completed. If all combinations have not been completed, the process proceeds to step 2503, and if completed, this algorithm ends. Step 25
03 searches for a generation tool having “Document A” as a generation source. The generation tool searched for the explanation is referred to as “generation tool P”. Step 2504 determines whether or not there is a “generation tool P”. If the "generation tool P" exists, step 2505 is executed, and if not, step 250
9 is executed. In step 2505, the name of the generation destination document of the "generation tool P" is read (called "document C"). Step 2506 is “Document C”
Is generated, and a generation tool having "Document B" as a generation destination is searched (referred to as "generation tool Q"). Step two
507 determines whether or not the “generation tool Q” exists. If it exists, step 2508 is executed, and if it does not exist, the process returns to step 2503 to search for the next generation tool. In step 2508, the determination result of document C is read. In step 2509, it is determined whether the determination result of the document C is “invalid”. If it is “invalid”, step 2510 is executed, the determination result of “document C” is set to “intermediate”, and the process returns to step 2503. If it is not "invalid", that is, it is "valid", the process returns to step 2503 without changing the determination result. Step 251
1 searches for a generation tool having the document B as a generation destination (referred to as "generation tool Q"). Step 2512 determines if a generation tool exists. If it exists, step 2513 is executed. If it does not exist, the procedure returns to step 2501 to select the next two documents.
In step 2513, the determination result of the generation source document of the generation tool Q is read. Step 2514 determines whether the determination result is invalid. Step 2 if invalid
513 is executed, and the determination result of the document D is “intermediate”.
And change to step 2501. If it is not invalid, that is, it is “valid”, the process returns to step 2501 without changing the determination result.

FIG. 28 shows a detailed algorithm of the generation tool determination processing in step 2403 of FIG. Step 26
01 reads one generation tool. Step 2602 determines whether all the generation tools have been read. When all have been read, this algorithm ends. In step 2603, the judgment result in the generation source document by the read generation tool is read. In step 2604, the determination result in the generation destination document by the read generation tool is read. Step 2605 is based on the combination of the determination results of the generation source document and the generation destination document.
The determination table shown in 9 is used to determine the generation tool. After the end of step 2605, the process returns to step 2601, and the determination process for the next generation tool is executed.

FIG. 29 shows the correspondence between the combination of the determination results of the generation source document and the generation destination document and the determination result of the generation tool when the determination of the generation tool in step 2605 of FIG. 28 is performed. The determination result of the generation source document is the execution result in step 2603 of FIG. The generation destination document corresponds to the execution result of step 2604. There are three types of determination results for the generation source document and the generation destination document, and the determination results are described for nine combinations of each as shown in this figure. As shown in the figure, there is only one case where the determination result of the generation tool is "valid", and this is only when both the determination results of the generation source document and the generation destination document are "valid". Further, there are four cases where the determination result of the generation tool is determined to be “invalid”, and this is the case where either or both of the determination results of the generation source document and the generation destination document are determined to be “invalid”. There are four remaining cases of determining "intermediate", which is the case where the determination results of the generation source and generation destination documents are either "valid" or "intermediate".

FIG. 30 shows an implementation algorithm in the second embodiment of the specification data edit control section shown in FIG. In step 2801, the determination result of the document to be activated is read. In step 2802, the judgment result is valid,
The next execution process is determined depending on whether it is intermediate or invalid. If it is valid, the corresponding editor is started in step 2803. If the result of determination is intermediate, "this document is an intermediate document" is displayed in step 2804 to display to the user that the document to be activated is outside the application procedure but is valid as an intermediate document. After the display, the editor corresponding to the document is activated in step 2803. If it is invalid in step 2802 and matches, in step 2805, “This document is not suitable in the application procedure” is displayed, and it is displayed that this document is invalid in the application procedure. Step 280
6 displays "Edit? (Y / N)" in order to ask the user whether he / she designs with the knowledge that it is invalid. Step 2807 receives the user's response to step 2806. Step 2808 is Step 2
It is determined whether the user response input at 807 is “Y”. If “Y”, the corresponding editor is activated in step 2803. If it is "N", the process is terminated. In this algorithm, the document judged as “invalid” also starts the editor with the user's own consent. Further, the realization algorithm in the second embodiment of the specification data generation control unit 1007 shown in FIG. 10 is that the reading of the determination result for the document in step 2801 of FIG. 30 is the reading of the determination result for the generation tool, and the activation of the editor in step 2803 is generated. If it is changed to the start of the tool, it can be easily realized without changing the other algorithm shown in FIG.

Next, a third embodiment will be described. Second
In the example, the number of tools that can be used by determining as "intermediate" is increased, and as shown in FIG. 30, the document and the generation tool that are determined as "invalid" can be used with the consent of the user. However, according to this embodiment, it is possible to generate a “valid” document from a document that is originally determined to be “invalid”, and there is a problem in the reliability of information such as generating other information from unreliable design source information. Occurs. Also, when a document that is determined to be "valid" is generated from a document that is determined to be "valid" by the "valid" generation means, the information may be changed at the generation destination, and the specifications of the generation source and A problem arises in the integrity of.

In order to solve these problems, in the third embodiment, a means for storing the edit history is further added to the second embodiment, and the specification data editing section and the specification data generation section are created from the edit history and the validity judgment result. Control the department. FIG. 31 is a functional configuration diagram for implementing the third embodiment. 31 is shown in FIG.
Edit section 2901 for storing the edit history in the functional configuration diagram of
Add. The specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 read the contents of the edit history unit 2901 and control the document and the generation tool to be activated.

FIG. 32 shows the contents of the edit history section 2901 of FIG. In this embodiment, the following six columns are included. Box 30
01 holds the No of the application procedure corresponding to the document. Columns 3002 and 3003 hold the type and name of the document. The column 3004 holds the content of the last operation performed on the document to be activated. In the case of the present embodiment, there are two types of values, "edit" and "generate". Box 3
005 holds the determination result as to whether or not the last operation shown in the column 3004 was "valid". In the case of this embodiment, there are three types of values: "valid", "intermediate", and "invalid". Column 3006
Holds the date and time of the last operation.

The document "call related diagram""A" described in the first line of the edit history portion of FIG. 32 will be described in detail. This document is based on the "Procedure No. 1" application procedure shown in column 3001 and "H03 /
This indicates that the “edit” operation shown in the column 3004 was last performed at the date and time of “12/19, 11:33:20”. Column 3001
In the application procedure of the procedure No. "1" indicated by, the "calling related diagram" is determined to be "valid", and thus the "edit" operation is "valid" means. Therefore, the "calling relation diagram""A" means that the "calling related diagram" is generated by the "valid""edit" operation.

FIGS. 33 (a) and 33 (b) show algorithms in the third embodiment of the specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 of FIG. This will be described with reference to FIG. In step 3101, the determination result of the document to be activated is read. In step 3102, the edit history corresponding to the document to be started is read. In step 3103, the control content is determined and executed based on the judgment result read in step 3101 and the edit history read in step 3102. The correspondence between the judgment result, the edit history and the control content is shown in FIG. 34. In step 3104, as a result of the judgment in step 3103, it is judged whether or not the tool is finally activated.

FIGS. 33 (a) and 33 (b) show algorithms of the specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 of FIG. 31 in the third embodiment. This will be described with reference to FIG. In step 3101, the determination result of the document to be activated is read. In step 3102, the edit history corresponding to the document to be started is read. In step 3103, the control content is determined and executed based on the judgment result read in step 3101 and the edit history read in step 3102. The correspondence between the judgment result, the edit history and the control content is shown in FIG. 34. In step 3104, as a result of the judgment in step 3103, it is judged whether or not the tool is finally activated.

If it has been started, in step 3105 the contents of the start are updated to the edit history section as an edit history.
If it has not started, the process is terminated without registering.
Next, FIG. 33 (b) will be described. In step 3111, the determination result of the generation tool to be started is read. In step 3112, the edit history of the original document is read. In step 3113, the control content is determined and executed from the determination result and the edit history. Detailed contents are shown in FIG. 34. Step 3114 determines whether the generation tool has been activated. If it has been started, the edit history section is updated as the edit history of the generation destination document in step 3115, and the process is terminated. If it has not been started, the processing ends.
FIG. 34 shows steps 3103 and 3 shown in FIGS. 33 (a) and 33 (b).
The content of the determination processing of 113 is shown. 33 also shows the registered contents of the edit history in steps 3105 and 3115 in FIG. It is possible to change the activation content as shown in FIG. 34 based on the combination of the content of the edit history portion and the content of the determination result portion. In particular, when the content of the edit history part is "generate / valid" and the content of the judgment result part is "edit / valid", the document to be edited is suitable for the application procedure and is "valid". This means that it is a "generated" document, and the determination process becomes "write lock of generated part" together with "editor startup". The definition source of the information described in the document can be clarified by adding the contents of the edit history.

Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. In the above-described embodiments, two types of support tools, the specification data editing unit and the specification data generating unit, are used. In the fourth embodiment, an inter-specification relation data section that holds relational data between specifications is used instead of the specification data generation section. Fig. 35
FIG. 9 is a functional configuration diagram for realizing the fourth embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is that the specification data generation unit 106 in FIG.
Further, instead of the specification data generation control unit 1007 and the inter-document generation tool list unit 1003 of FIG. 10, the inter-specification relation data unit 3304, the inter-specification relation data registration / reference unit 3303, and the inter-document relation data correspondence unit 330.
1 and the inter-specification relation data control unit 3302 are added. The inter-specification relationship data section 3304 holds design data particularly related to other documents from the items described in the document. The inter-specification relationship data registration / reference unit 3303 extracts the inter-specification relationship data from the design data in the specification data editing unit 104 and registers it in the inter-specification relationship data section, or specifies the related data for designing. It is a means for referring from the inter-stroke relation data section.
The inter-document relation data correspondence unit 3301 holds the correspondence relation between the documents and the relation data transmitted / received from the specification data editing unit 104 to the inter-specification relation data registration / reference unit. The specification related data control unit 3302 determines the determination result unit 10
From the contents of 04, the specification related data registration / reference section 330
Control execution of 3.

FIG. 36 shows the contents of the inter-document relational data correspondence section 3301. Twelve types of documents supported by the specification data editing unit 104 and eight types of relational data held by the inter-specification relational data unit 3304 are shown, and the correspondence between the documents and the relational data is indicated by a circle in this figure. As for the correspondence between the "call related diagram" and the "module" shown in this figure, extract the "module" data from the "call related diagram" document and register it as the related data in the inter-specification relation data correspondence part. Means

FIG. 38 shows the contents of the judgment result part in the fourth embodiment. This figure shows the determination result in the application procedure of No1 (shown in FIG. 6). There are two types of determination results, one used for the specification data edit control unit and one used for the inter-specification relation data control unit. The determination result used by the specification data edit control unit is the same as that of the first embodiment except that the "development phase" of designing a document is added. There are the following two types of determination results used by the inter-specification relation data control unit. In this figure, the level of registration / reference of relational data indicated by the circle and the level of reference only indicated by the triangle are shown.
For example, in the case of relational data of "call relation", registration / reference from the "call relation diagram" in the early development phase is possible, and only "module specification" in the later development phase can be referred. In this way, by registering the relational data from the document in the early development phase and referring to the document in the late development phase, the registration from the document in the late development phase is prevented. This has the effect of preventing the inconsistency between the contents of the document designed earlier and the contents of the document designed later, and observing the application procedure for the user. FIG. 38 shows the determination result in the application procedure shown in FIG. In FIG. 38, the relational data of “call relation” is registered from the “module specification” in the early development phase, and only the reference is possible in the “call relation diagram” in the late development phase. In this way, even in various application development procedures defined by the user, it becomes possible to control the support tools such as the specification edit and the relational database according to the procedure.

[0051]

According to the present invention, the design according to the procedure can be guided only by defining the application procedure, and the labor for constructing the software development support system can be saved. Even when multiple development departments define their own application procedures and carry out development, since there are correspondences between departments and users and correspondences between departments and development procedures, there are multiple development procedures at the same time. Even if it exists, it can be supported. Further, since the design can be guided to the user based on each design procedure, it is possible to prevent the inconsistency of the design content between the design documents. Also, by making it possible to reuse the development procedures applied in one department in other departments, for example, it is possible to apply the development procedures for quality improvement to the development department that was developing inferior quality. The efficient development procedure of can be handed down to many departments.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram showing a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram for implementing the first embodiment.

3 is a functional configuration diagram showing in detail an application procedure determining unit 101 in FIG.

FIG. 4 shows an example of stored contents of a department user correspondence unit 102 of FIG.

[Figure 5] Screen layout diagram for development procedure definition

FIG. 6 shows an example of stored contents of a development procedure section 303 of FIG.

FIG. 7 shows an example of screen output when a procedure on the development procedure definition screen is defined.

8 shows an example of stored contents of a procedure application case section 305 of FIG.

9 shows an example of stored contents of an application procedure section 103 of FIG.

10 is a functional configuration diagram showing the tool matching unit 107 of FIG. 1 in detail.

FIG. 11 is a document editor list section 100 of FIG.
2 shows an example of the stored contents.

FIG. 12 is an inter-document generation tool list part 1 of FIG.
An example of the stored contents of 003 is shown.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a document and a generation tool according to the first embodiment.

14 is a diagram for explaining a support tool validity determination unit 1001 of FIG.

15 is a diagram for explaining a support tool validity determination unit 1001 of FIG.

16 shows an example of stored contents of the determination result part 1004 of FIG.

17 shows an example of a case where the execution results of the specification data edit control unit 1006 and the specification data generation control unit 1007 of FIG. 10 are output on the screen.

18 is a flowchart for realizing the application procedure determining unit 101 in FIG.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart for executing a determination process on a document in the support tool validity determination unit 1001 of FIG.

20 is a flowchart for executing a determination process for a document generation tool in the support tool validity determination unit 1001 of FIG.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing in detail the execution of step 1803 in FIG.

22 is a flow chart showing in detail the execution of step 1804 of FIG. 20. FIG.

23 is a flowchart showing execution contents of a specification data edit control unit and a specification data generation control unit in FIG.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining the effectiveness determination result of the support tool in the second embodiment.

FIG. 25 shows the stored contents of the determination result part in the second embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart for realizing the second embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a detailed flowchart showing step 2402 of FIG. 26.

FIG. 28 is a detailed flowchart showing step 2403 of FIG. 26.

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining the determination content in step 2605 of FIG. 28.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart showing execution contents of a specification data edit control unit in the second embodiment.

FIG. 31 is a detailed functional configuration diagram of a tool control unit according to the third embodiment.

32 is an explanatory diagram showing storage contents of an edit history unit 2901 of FIG. 31. FIG.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart for executing a specification data edit control unit and a specification data generation control unit in the third embodiment.

FIG. 34 is a diagram for explaining the determination contents of the support tool validity determination unit in the third example.

FIG. 35 is a detailed functional configuration diagram of a tool matching unit in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 36 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between a document and relationship data in the fourth example.

FIG. 37 is a diagram showing stored contents of determination results in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing stored contents of determination results in the fourth example.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Applicable procedure determination unit, 102 ... Department user response unit,
103 ... Application procedure section, 104 ... Specification data editing section, 10
5 ... Specification data section, 106 ... Specification data generation section, 107
… Tool matching section

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A software design support system for interactively editing specifications when developing software by a large number of people, including a step of storing a development procedure (description document and development order) for each department. A method for supporting a customized development procedure, characterized in that the stored development procedure can be used for development of another department. 2. A software design support system for interactively editing specifications when developing software by a large number of people, including a step of storing a development procedure defined by a user and a step of holding a list of document types. A step of determining a document editing tool suitable for the development procedure from the stored list of development procedures and document types and a step of storing the determination result are provided to guide the development based on the development procedure defined by the user. A method for supporting customized development procedures. 3. The software design support system according to claim 2, wherein when a user activates a document editing tool for designing a document, it is determined whether or not the development procedure is suitable based on the determination result. A customized development procedure support method characterized by guiding a development based on a development procedure defined by a user by adding a step of starting a tool when it is suitable and displaying a message to that effect when it is not suitable. 4. The software design support system according to claim 3, wherein a step of holding a correspondence relationship between an identifier specifying a user and an identifier specifying a development department, and an identifier specifying a development procedure defined by the user. Provide a step to store the correspondence with the identifier that identifies the development department,
When a user designs a document, it is possible to guide development even in multiple development departments by providing a step that specifies the development department to which the user belongs and further specifies the development procedure applied in the development department. Customized development procedure support method characterized by. 5. The software design support system according to claim 3, further comprising a step of storing a history of design contents executed by the user, the user adding the design history when editing the specification data. A method for supporting a customized development procedure, which is characterized by making a judgment based on the above. 6. The software design support system according to claim 1, wherein a correspondence relation between a generation source document type and a generation destination document type is applied in order to apply to a support tool for generating one document into another document. And the step of deciding whether or not the development procedure is suitable when the user uses the generation tool, and activating the tool if it is suitable and displaying that effect if it is not, to the development defined by the user. A customized development procedure support method characterized by guiding a design based on a procedure. 7. A customized development procedure support method, wherein the method for editing and generating specification data according to claim 6 is applied to a design support system for editing specification data and registering and referencing relational data between specifications.