This invention relates to user assistance systems and methods in general, and more specifically, to methods for mapping past, current, and future steps performed in connection with a software system.
Computers are becoming more and more an aspect of everyday life. Children as young as two years old are now exposed to computers and software programs in a home environment and they are now commonplace in schools, businesses, factories, and virtually every aspect of life.
User assistance programs are systems developed to provide guidance to the user of a software program. Wizards, coaches, and guides, all of which walk the user through the steps of a particular program, are well known. A drawback of these prior art systems, however, lies in the “snapshot” nature of such systems. Most programs comprise an interrelated series of steps to be performed, with the sequence of steps being variable depending upon the process to be performed. Typically, the user follows a “decision tree” where the user is given information about the present step (the currently-selected step) to be taken and is given instructions to either go to the next step (e.g., by hitting the “next” button in a GUI) or to go back to the previous step (e.g., by pressing a “back” button). While such systems do provide assistance, they provide no information regarding anything other than the immediately preceding or immediately subsequent step, i.e., there is no long-term historical path showing steps already taken, nor is there a “future” path given to show the user the likely steps to follow. Further, in a typical decision tree system, moving from a present frame to a previous frame will delete any information input into the present frame, i.e., the user cannot jump back and forth between positions in the tree structure without losing data input.
Another problem with typical decision tree systems is that the user may be able to move along the tree structure along “branches” which ultimately end up at a location where the particular user is unauthorized to perform any activity, or where the user simply did not wish to go, but could not tell for sure until he or she got there. For example, often a user relying on the user assistance aspects of a program is a novice user who is unfamiliar with the program and its operation. Frequently the user will receive error messages advising that a particular step requires a prior step to be performed, even though the particular user is not authorized to perform the step. This can cause the user to unknowingly take a path that leads to an undesired destination, wasting valuable time and increasing user frustration.
One example of a system involving a complicated set of processes that must be navigated, and which can benefit from a user assistance system, is in the field of software development. To support the explosive growth of computer usage, software development has become a key part of any company engaged in high-technology business. Large companies such as IBM and Microsoft may have many software development groups located at numerous locations throughout the world, with each group employing hundreds or thousands of employees. With large numbers of employees focusing their work on the development of these assets, management becomes a critical task. Typically, software development “teams” within a company, made up of many developers who are sometimes at different locations, are employed to produce a final product.
The use of software development teams allows the work required to develop a final software product to be divided among many individuals. Throughout the development of a product from start to finish (referred to herein as the software “life cycle”), different individuals access the components of the product being developed at all different times. To enable proper management of the product development, systems referred to as software configuration management (SCM) systems have been developed to allow control of the process to be maintained. These systems allow tracking and control of software development, and allow management of software development projects with respect to issues such as multiple developers working on the same code at the same time, targeting multiple platforms, supporting multiple versions, and controlling the status of code (for example, beta tests versus real release). Once such example of an SCM system is the VisualAge TeamConnection Enterprise Server™ developed and sold by IBM.
Utilization of SCM systems greatly increases productivity and simplifies the software development process for the development team members. Among their many benefits, SCM systems can provide user assistance by displaying to the developer the next step in the programming sequence; allowing different actions to be performed at different times, depending on input from a team leader; and allowing different team members to be authorized to perform different actions, while excluding access to others, based on input from a team leader. However, these programs may still be quite complicated and users of the SCM system can still get confused as to how far along in the life cycle they are, what steps in the life cycle are available to them, and what paths in the life cycle are most likely to be coming up, i.e., the problems of the prior art discussed above are not solved through the use of a typical SCM system.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a navigator program or user assistance system which combines an active display of the past, current, and future steps in an ongoing process with a series of associated decision panels and forms to be completed in order to carry omit the steps.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for providing user assistance in connection with a computer program which combines an active display of the past, current, and future steps in an ongoing process with a series of associated decision panels and forms to be completed in order to carry out the steps.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an active navigator which enables a user of a computer program to view a display listing past steps taken, the current step being executed, and the most likely future steps to be taken in the program, while simultaneously being able to view the current step being executed by the user.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system whereby a user of a computer program can move backward from a current step along a series of previously-performed steps to view actions taken and/or data input during the executon of said previously-performed step, without losing any data input during the execution of the current step.
The present invention has particular application in a software-development environment where software configuration management programs utilizing multiple processes, each of which comprise a series of interrelated steps, are used.
To achieve the foregoing, and in accordance with the purpose of the invention as broadly described herein, the present invention provides a user assistance system for providing user assistance in connection with procedures associated with the operation of a computer program running on a computer system, each of the procedures comprising an interrelated series of steps, with one of the steps being a currently-selected step, the user assistance system comprising a client area displaying information pertaining to the currently-selected step; and a navigator bar adjacent to the client area, the navigator bar displaying a visual representation of the interrelated series of steps associated with the currently-selected step.
A method is also provided for providing user assistance in connection with procedures associated with the operation of a computer program running on a computer system, each of the procedures comprising an interrelated series of steps, with one of the steps being a currently-selected step, the method comprising the steps of generating a client area in which information pertaining to the currently-selected step is displayed; and generating a navigator bar adjacent to the client area, the navigator bar displaying a visual representation of the interrelated series of steps associated with the currently-selected step.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings, in which like reference numbers denote the same element throughout.
While this invention is illustrated and described in a preferred embodiment, the device may be produced in many different configurations, forms and materials. There is depicted in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, a preferred embodiment of the invention, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and the associated functional specifications of the materials for its construction and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. Those skilled in the art will envision many other possible variations within the scope of the present invention.
The workstation 10 communicates via a communications channel 32 with other computers or networks of computers. The workstation 10 may be associated with such other computers in a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network, or the workstation 10 can be client in a client/server arrangement with another computer, etc. All of these configurations, as well as the appropriate communications hardware and software, are known in the art.
Still referring to
The mainframe computer 46 may also be coupled to a storage device 50, which may serve as remote storage for the LAN 44. Similarly, the LAN 44 may be coupled to a communications link 52 through a subsystem control unit/communication controller 54 and a communications link 56 to a gateway server 58. The gateway server 58 is preferably an individual computer or intelligent workstation which serves to link the LAN 42 to the LAN 44.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mainframe computer 46 may be located a great geographic distance from the LAN 44, and similarly, the LAN 44 may be located a substantial distance from the LAN 42. For example, the LAN 42 may be located in California, while the LAN 44 may be located in Texas, and the mainframe computer 46 may be located in New York.
Software programming code which embodies the present invention is typically stored in permanent storage of some type, such as the permanent storage 30 of the workstation 10. In a client/server environment, such software programming code may be stored with storage associated with a server. The software programming code may be embodied on any of a variety of known media for use with a data processing system, such as a diskette, or hard drive, or CD-ROM. The code may be distributed on such media, or may be distributed to users from the memory or storage of one computer system over a network of some type to other computer systems for use by users of such other systems. The techniques and methods for embodying software program code on physical media and/or distributing software code via networks are well known and will not be further discussed herein.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention as applied to an SCM system will now be discussed with reference to
To better understand the present invention, the following example based on an SCM system is provided. It is understood that that is given for purposes of explanation only, and that the present invention will find application in any system or environment where a series of steps and options are presented for selection.
For the purpose of understanding the present invention it is only necessary to understand that operation of the SCM system gives the developer the ability to perform many different processes and subprocesses, and depending on which process is chosen, different options become available to the developer. For example, the steps illustrated in
Referring to
At step 414, the design change for the defect or feature is described and, at step 416, the defect or feature is moved to the “size” state. The “size” state refers to a subprocess step in which resources required to resolve a defect or implement a feature are identified, as are releases affected by the defect or feature. At step 418, the records relating to this sizing step are created and, at step 420, the sizing records are either accepted (meaning that the resources required to resolve the defect or implement the feature are available and within budgetary constraints) or rejected (meaning that the resources required are unavailable and/or too costly) and placed in the “accept” or “reject” state.
At step 422, the action of reviewing a defect or feature begins. At step 422, a reviewing team member may choose to accept a feature or defect, and they will be given several options for proceeding. The process continues through each of the steps of
Buttons 508 and 510 are “raised,” meaning that they are active and they able to be selected at this point in time. Buttons 512, 514, 516, and 518 are “grayed out”, indicating that they are future steps not yet performed, i.e., they are potentially going to be active at some point in the process, but they are currently not available for selection. By default, the present invention displays the most likely steps to be traversed based on the currently-selected step. A “prior history” arrow 520 and “subsequent history” 521 are shown which, when active, indicate to a user of the system that there is additional history along the navigator bar 504 available for viewing. The prior history arrow 520 and subsequent history arrow 521 will be active if there is relevant historical information to be viewed. By “depressing” an active arrow with a mouse click, the navigator bar 504 will change (i.e., scroll left or right) to display the relevant history, without changing what is displayed below the navigator bar 504. Thus, unlike use of the prior art “back” or “next” buttons, using the present invention a user may scroll back and forward along the paths without changing what is displayed in client area 503. The information displayed in the client area 503 below the navigator bar 504 is always dependent on which button on the navigator bar 504 is selected and not on which buttons are in view.
Since two buttons are active, buttons 508 and 510, the user has two choices for proceeding forward. In
In accordance with the present invention, in addition to being able to simply accept the default option, the developer is given a choice of selecting from among the other options displayed. For example, as shown in
All of the steps displayable on the navigator bar 504 do not need to fit onto one screen. As noted above, history arrows 520 and 521 become active if there are steps that are not shown on their respective sides. In
Should the user complete the form in
With the present invention, the user always has in view the path followed, the current selection-screen with available options, and the future steps that will be available for a particular selected option. The user is able to select from any of these available options to “jump” to the selected option. Since all of the information is provided on the computer screen of the user, there is no need to refer to printed flow diagrams to determine which options are available and which options have been traversed; all of this information is made immediately available to the user. Further, changes to the program used in connection with the navigator bar will be immediately available to the user; under the prior art systems, the printed flow diagrams would need to be collected and replaced with new diagrams reflecting the changes.
A user can quickly see how far along the most common route in the process has been traversed, as well as how much further the user must go to finish the most common route. The user can also see which steps are repeatable, skip forward (if possible) or back to another step, and when a different path is chosen from a decision panel, the user can quickly see what the most common steps are for the new path.
Although the present invention has been described with respect to a specific preferred embodiment thereof, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art and it is intended that the present invention encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims. For example, while the present invention is described herein as having particular application in connection with an SCM program, the present invention is not so limited. The present invention can be used in any system which gives a user options to select from along a sequence having a beginning and an end and/or which incorporate selective access to different areas of the program for different users. Such systems could include, but are not limited to, software installation programs, process monitoring systems (e.g., power plant monitoring systems), tax return preparation programs, medical records monitoring systems, litigation assistance programs, or any system where a user may be unfamiliar with the processes of the system. The present invention is useful in any environment in which it might be desirable to track and/or selectively jump forward or backward to future or prior steps. The programming of the present invention may be implemented by one of ordinary skill in the art of object-oriented programming.
The above-described user-assistance program and its individually described elements may be implemented in various computing environments. For example, the present invention may be implemented on a conventional IBM PC or equivalent, multi-nodal system (e.g., LAN) or networking system. All programming, algorithms, GUIs, display panels and dialog box templates, metadata and data related thereto are stored in computer memory, static or dynamic, and may be retrieved by the user in any of: conventional computer storage, display (i.e., CRT) and/or hardcopy (i.e., printed) formats.
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