JP2011070245A - Application use state measurement system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To monitor whether a predetermined application is efficiently used for a project without putting a load on project members such as a project manager, a sub-leader, and a person in charge of development. <P>SOLUTION: The predetermined application installed in each terminal connected by a network includes an input detecting means of receiving an input from an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, etc., from an operating system, an input object determining means of determining to which part of the application the input corresponds, a use state measuring means of determining how much the input contributes to efficient use of the application, a use state totaling means of totaling the use state measured by the measuring means for a predetermined period, and a use state display means of listing and displaying a totaling result of the totaling means together with a plurality of projects. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a computer system for measuring the usage status of an application program.

  Today, various software, applications, or development environments (hereinafter collectively referred to as “applications”) are used for development and management in software development projects. In order to efficiently advance a software development project and improve production efficiency, it is important that members involved in the project, such as a project manager, a sub-leader, and a developer in charge, make maximum use of these applications. As a result, the project period can be shortened, the man-hours can be reduced, and the profit can be improved.

  Examples of such applications include, for example, Microsoft Project, which is a management application for efficiently managing tasks to be performed in a project and their schedules in association with resources, man-hours, etc., various documents and sources created in the project -Visual Source Safe for code sharing and version management, and various integrated development environments (IDEs) that integrate project application coding, debugging, deployment, and the like are known.

  The larger the project, the greater the impact on time, man-hours, and profits of effectively using the application. Furthermore, the impact will be even greater, for example, in large software companies with a large number of such projects.

  Considering the above, in particular, a large-scale company selects an effective application group and uses it for each project as a standard application of the company.

JP 2009-176120 A JP 2009-093519 A JP 2009-116617 A JP 2009-075877 A JP 2004-259036 A

  However, even if a company selects a standard application and is instructed to use it, the application preferred by the project manager and the application inherited by the department to which the project manager belongs are used. There is often. Also, there are some projects that do not use applications in the first place and proceed with projects inefficiently, resulting in a deficit.

  In order to prevent this, it is necessary to constantly monitor whether the specified application is being used efficiently in each project and to provide feedback to each project. However, it is difficult to monitor that applications are being used “efficiently” and there is no solution in the prior art.

  For example, Patent Documents 1 to 5 are known as prior art related to the present invention. All of these acquire operation information and operating status of the application, but the viewpoint of its efficient use is not considered.

  The present invention has been made to solve this problem, and the designated application can be efficiently used in the project without imposing a burden on project members such as a project manager, a subleader, and a developer. The purpose is to monitor whether or not.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an input detection means for receiving an input from an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse from an operating system for a specified application installed in each terminal connected via a network, An input object determining means for determining which part of the application the input is for, a usage status measuring means for determining how much the input contributes to efficient use of the application, and the measuring means It is characterized by comprising usage status totaling means for totaling the measured usage status over a specified period and usage status display means for displaying a list of the results totaled by the totaling means together with a plurality of projects.

  With the above configuration, when the present invention is used, the promotion department of a company that selects a set of standard applications as efficient applications and uses them for each project, does each project use the application efficiently? It is possible to monitor and judge whether or not, and use the results to periodically grasp the usage status, provide feedback to each project, review the application selection, etc. Further, the project manager can grasp whether or not the application selected to be used in the project is efficiently used by the sub-leader or the developer.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an application usage status measurement system. (Embodiment) FIG. 2 is a block diagram for receiving an input from the input device, determining which application the input is for, and analyzing the usage information. (Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a screen of an exemplary client type application. (Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary web application screen. (Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an application input definition table. (Embodiment) FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an application usage information table. (Embodiment) FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an application usage information tabulation result table. (Embodiment) FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a screen for registering basic information of an application. (Embodiment) FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a screen for registering points related to each component in the application and each action for the component. (Embodiment) FIG. 10 is a flowchart for registering application information. (Embodiment) FIG. 11 is a flowchart for collecting application usage information. (Embodiment)

  Hereinafter, an application usage status measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an application usage status measurement system. In FIG. 1, a local area network (LAN) 1 100 and a LAN 2 101 are connected to each other by a wide area network (WAN) 104. The LAN 1 100 includes clients 1 to N 102 for which application usage information is collected, and these are connected to the outside of the LAN 1 100 by a firewall 103. The LAN 2 101 has a server 106 and is connected to the outside of the LAN 2 101 by a firewall 105. The server 106 collects application usage information from the clients 1 to N 102 on a regular basis (for example, every day), aggregates the usage information for a certain period, and monitors the application usage information of the clients 1 to N 102 for an appropriate administrator. To display the total result. The clients 1 to N 102 include a plurality of input devices for inputting data to the clients 1 to N 102. In FIG. 1, a mouse 107 and a keyboard 108 are shown as these input devices. However, this is for the purpose of illustration and is not limited. Generally, any input device such as a touch pad, a trackball, or a stylus pen is used. Can be used. In addition, the clients 1 to N 102 and the server 106 can accept inputs from the input device, start and operate arbitrary applications, and can deliver arbitrary data to other devices via the network. Any device may be used. Also, by way of example and not limitation, the communication media connecting each client, firewall, and server in FIG. 1 include wired media such as a wired network or direct wire connection, and acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Wireless media such as Further, in FIG. 1, the clients 1 to N 102 from which application usage information is collected and the server 106 that collects the usage information exist in separate LANs and are connected by the WAN 104. This is an example and not a limitation. Of course, in some cases, the WAN 104 is unnecessary, and the clients 1 to N 102 and the server 106 may be in the same LAN.

  In FIG. 1, the users of the clients 1 to N 102 log in to the client, start a desired application, and work with the application. This operation is usually performed by inputting information or data using the mouse 107 and the keyboard 108. This input information or data is analyzed, converted into usage information of the application, and delivered to the server 106 via the firewall 103, WAN 104, and firewall 105. Next, this process will be described in detail with reference to a block diagram.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram for receiving an input from the input device, determining which application the input is for, and analyzing the usage information. The processing according to this block diagram is executed inside any one of the clients 1 to N 102 in FIG.

  The user starts an application to be monitored on the client. In the present embodiment, two types of applications, that is, a client application 206 and a Web application 207 are considered. The client application 206 is an application that operates only on the client without mainly flowing data on the network or exchanging data with other devices on the network. The Web application 207 is an application that operates on a so-called browser, and is an application that advances processing mainly by exchanging data with a server or the like on a network.

  After starting the application, the user inputs information using the mouse 107 or the keyboard 108 in order to proceed with the work. This input information includes data specifying which application is input, text character string data for the application, and click information such as a menu. The client operating system 201 receives this input and passes it to the input detection / measurement unit 202. The input detection / measurement unit 202 determines from the input information the application that is the destination of the information, the control (menu, button, text box, etc.) in the application, and the action (mouse click, keyboard press, etc.) for the control. ) Is acquired. This information includes, for example, an application handle and a control ID. The input detection / measurement unit 202 refers to the application input definition table 203 and uses the above information to acquire a point associated with an action for a component in the application. The point represents how much the action contributes to efficient use of the application. Hereinafter, this point is referred to as an operation contribution point as necessary. In this specification, since the word “point” is not used for anything else, it is also simply referred to as “point”. The larger the point, the more efficiently the application is used. Next, the input detection / measurement unit 202 registers the points obtained from the application input definition table 203 in the application usage information table 204. Although the details will be described later, this table manages application usage results in points. Note that the application usage definition table 203 and the application usage information table 204 are on the client and the server 106 of FIG. 1 respectively. After registering the application usage record (points) in the application usage information 204, the input detection / measurement unit 202 passes the input information from the input device received from the operating system 201 to the application 205. In the present embodiment, the client application 206 and the Web application 207 are considered as the application 205.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing in detail the screen of the client application 206 of FIG. In the figure, an integrated development environment (IDE) of a program is shown as the client application 206. However, this is an example and not a limitation, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that any application such as a document creation application or spreadsheet software can be used. Will be understood.

  In FIG. 3, the client application 206 includes a menu 301, a project explorer 302, a source code section 303, a server view 304, and a drop down menu 305. From the menu 301, a new program can be created, edited, displayed, executed, and the like. The project explorer 302 is a part that displays folders, files, etc. in the project in a tree shape. The source code section 303 inputs a program code fragment and completes the program. The server view 304 is a part for starting a server for expanding and executing a program and registering a project in the server. The drop-down menu 305 is a sub-menu of the menu 301, and a detailed menu related to each item of the menu 305 is displayed.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing in detail the screen of the Web application 207 in FIG. In the figure, a simple personal information registration application on a Web browser is shown as the Web application 207. However, this is an example and not a limitation, and those skilled in the art will understand that any Web application such as a bulletin board can be used. Like.

  The menu section 401 in the Web application in FIG. 4 is a menu generally provided in a standard browser, and is a file menu for opening a new window, closing a window, etc., editing for copying, editing, etc. data on the browser. There are menus, display menus for displaying the page source, and the like. In the Web application of this embodiment, personal information is input and the information is registered in an appropriate server. For this purpose, the user inputs an address 402, name 403, age 404, gender 405, and telephone number 406 in an appropriate format, and presses a registration button 407.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of the application input definition table 203. As described above, in the application input definition table 203, points are associated with actions such as clicks, keyboard inputs, and the like for controls such as buttons, radio buttons, text boxes, menus, and the like included in each application. The size of this point defines how much the action contributes to efficient use of the application. For example, the greater the point, the greater the action taken on the corresponding application component, which contributes to the efficient use of the application. Data registration in this table, that is, association of points to actions for application components, may be performed manually by an administrator or automatically according to some criteria.

  Next, the structure of the table in FIG. 5 will be described in more detail using reference numerals. Reference numeral 501 represents a name for uniquely identifying an application. The application type 502 distinguishes whether the application is a client application (CS) or a web application (Web), and further distinguishes each in parentheses. For example, CS (IDE) indicates that the application is an IDE type client application. Web (bulletin board) indicates that the application is a bulletin board type web application. The execution file path or URL 503 represents the execution file path of the application on the client if it is a client application, and represents the URL of the application if it is a Web application. A component name 504 indicates a name associated with a component such as a menu, button, or text area in the application. For example, in the case of a file menu, it is simply “file”. The sub component name 505 is a name corresponding to each item displayed in the drop down menu. This is blank except for menu items that have a drop down menu. A component type 506 represents a component type such as a menu, a button, a text area, or the like. The component ID 507 represents the representation of the component within the machine, and is for uniquely identifying the component within the machine.

  The input detection / measurement unit 202 in FIG. 2 receives the component IDs in this order from the input device and the operating system 201, and specifies the input target component. The action 508 is an action determined for each component of the application, and includes click, shortcut key (pressing), key input, and the like. When the action is a key input, for example, it may not be said that the application is efficiently used only by inputting a few characters. In order to take this into consideration, a field of a data amount threshold 509 is provided. That is, points are counted only when a key input exceeding the data amount threshold 509 is made. In addition, for example, when inputting a source code in a client application, even if a character string completely unrelated to the source code is input, if points are counted, the efficiency is improved even though the application is not used efficiently. It will be judged that it is using it. In order to prevent this, a field for keyword 510 is provided. When a keyword or keywords are specified in this field and the action is a key input, points are counted only if the input includes the specified keyword. Point 511 is the point described so far, and is given by a positive integer appropriate for the action of the component of the application. As described above, a larger value is assigned to the point 511 for the action of the component that is considered to lead to efficient use of the application.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing details of the application usage information table 204. In the present embodiment, usage results are collected and tabulated on a daily basis. That is, each record of the table is uniquely identified by a set of application name 601, component name 603, and aggregation date 607, and points for the action of each component in one day are the corresponding application 601, component 603, and aggregation date 607. It is added to the specified point total 608.

  In the present embodiment, the usage of the application can be measured over a specific period. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the contents of the usage information table in FIG. 6 are totaled over a specific period. As shown in FIG. 7, the point total 608 in FIG. 6 is added to the total period defined by the start date 703 and the end date 704 for each application 701. Each record in FIG. 7 is uniquely identified by a set of an application name 701, a start date 703, and an end date 704.

  FIG. 8 is a screen for registering basic information of an application. This screen is mainly configured as a screen for manual registration by the person who installed the application, but it can be implemented using some tool that automatically performs the registration for the application installed on the client. Also good. A combination of basic information registered on this screen and point information associated with an action for each application component in FIG. 9 described later is registered in the application input definition table in FIG. The person who installed the application inputs the application name 801, the application type 802, the execution file path of the application or the URL 803 on the screen of FIG. 8, and presses the registration button 804. Then, these pieces of information are combined with the information registered in FIG. 9 and registered in the application input definition table in FIG.

  FIG. 9 shows a screen for registering points related to each component in the application and each action for the component. Unlike FIG. 8, this screen is used by a person who wants to grasp the usage status of each application in the project. Examples of such a person include a senior manager who wants to manage the status of a plurality of projects in the same department, and a person in charge of a department that monitors the status of projects across the company. Therefore, the information shown in FIG. 9 is registered in common with the server 106 in FIG. The information in FIG. 9 is desirably registered in advance before the information on the screen in FIG. 8 is registered in each client. Accordingly, when the information of FIG. 8 is registered on the client, the information of FIG. 9 is obtained from a common location (for example, the server 106), and the input definition of FIG. Can be registered in the table. If there is an application in which basic information is registered before registering the information in FIG. 9, each client is visited, and the information registered in FIG. 9 is added to the application information in the input definition table in FIG.

  In FIG. 9, data corresponding to the input definition table of FIG. 5 is registered. That is, the application name 901, application type 902, component name 903, sub-component name 904, component type 905, component ID 906, action 907, data threshold 908, keyword 909, and point 910 are the application name 501 in FIG. , Application type 502, component name 504, subcomponent name 505, component type 506, component ID 507, action 508, data amount threshold 509, keyword 510, and point 511. When a registration button 911 is pressed, each piece of information is registered in a database (not shown) on the server 106.

  In the registration screen of FIG. 9, each item is manually registered, but a part of these items may be automatically acquired by the system and displayed on the screen in advance. For example, when the application to be monitored is determined in advance and the component name and the action for the component can be acquired from the application structure, source, etc., the application name 901, application type 902, component name 903, subcomponent name 904, component Each type of text box of type 905, component ID 906, and action 907 can be used as a drop-down menu to fill in options.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart for registering application information in each client. As described above with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, the application information includes basic information including the application name, type, and executable file path, and information that determines points related to actions on the components of the application. Registered mainly by the person who installed the application or the person who uses the application (hereinafter referred to as “user” for simplicity) in the client, and the latter information is centrally registered in a common location such as the server 106 It is.

  In 1001, the user first displays a screen for registering basic information of the application. This screen corresponds to FIG. 8, and may be a screen of a client application for registration, for example, or a screen of a Web application developed on an intranet in the company. At 1002, the user registers the name and type of the application and the location (file path) where the application is installed on the client, as described above with respect to FIG. At 1003, the client connects to a location where points related to the action for each component of the application are stored, for example, the server 106 of FIG. 1, and acquires the point information. When the point information is registered (Yes in 1003), the basic information registered in 1002 and the point information are combined and registered in the client database (corresponding to FIG. 5). Otherwise (No in 1003), only the basic information registered in 1002 is registered in the client database (corresponding to FIG. 5). The point information is automatically registered when it is registered in the server 106.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart for automatically collecting usage information when a user uses an application. The usage information is automatically performed by the input detection / measurement unit 202 of FIG. 2 installed in the client.

  At 1101, the user activates an application for work, for example, by double-clicking on the application icon. This activation method is only an example, and any appropriate activation method such as activation from the command line can be used. In 1102, for example, the user inputs source code to the IDE from the keyboard for program creation, inputs document data from the keyboard to the document creation software for document creation, or registers the data in the Web application. Click the registration button with the mouse to press the registration button. In 1103, the operating system obtains data input by the user, obtains the destination application name, component ID, action, and the like from them, and passes them to the input detection / measurement unit 202. In 1104, the input detection / measurement unit 202 searches the application input definition table 203 using the acquired application name, component ID, and action, and acquires points. In 1105, the input detection / measurement unit 202 searches the application usage information table 204 with the application name, component ID, and date of the current day, and adds the acquired points to the obtained record. If there is no record, a new record is added and the point is inserted into the record as it is. After the above processing is completed, in 1106, the input detection / measurement unit 202 passes the information received from the operating system to the application specified by the application name. At 1107, the application that receives the information operates as specified by the input device to the user (eg, display of input source code, etc.).

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. However, this embodiment is an example, and various modifications and variations that realize the present invention can be added to the above embodiment. For example, the client running the application and the server for monitoring the usage status of the application may be on the same LAN. Alternatively, application definition information may be automatically acquired from the installation status of each application without manually inputting the definition information.

  It can be used to maximize the use of applications in software development projects. It can also be used in a service provider that provides services using a computer.

100 LAN1
101 LAN2
102 Client 103 Firewall 104 WAN
105 Firewall 106 Server 107 Mouse 108 Keyboard 201 Operating System 202 Input Detection / Measurement Unit 203 Application Input Definition DB
204 Application usage information DB
205 Application 206 Client Application 207 Web Application 301 Menu 302 Project Explorer 303 Source Code Section 304 Server View 305 Drop-down Menu 401 Menu 402 Address Input Text Box 403 Name Input Text Box 404 Age Input Text Box 405 Text box for gender input 406 Text box for telephone number input 407 Registration button 501 Application name 502 Application type 503 Executable file path or URL
504 Component name 505 Sub-component name 506 Component type 507 Component ID
508 Action 509 Data amount threshold 510 Keyword 511 Points 601 Application name 602 Application type 603 Component name 604 Subcomponent name 605 Component type 606 Component ID
607 Aggregation date 608 Point total 701 Application name 702 Application type 703 Aggregation period start date 704 Aggregation period end date 705 Point aggregation result 801 Application name input text box 802 Application type input drop-down list 803 Executable file Text box for inputting path or URL 804 Registration button 901 Text box for inputting application name 902 Text box for inputting application type 903 Text box for inputting component name 904 Text box for inputting sub-component name 905 Text box for inputting component type 906 Component ID input text box 907 Action input text Box 908 data threshold input text box 909 keyword input text box 910 point input text box 911 registration button 1001 application information the basic information of the display 1002 application registration screen registration 1003 the application point information registered?
1004 Register only basic information of application 1005 Combine basic information and point information and register in DB 1101 User starts application 1102 Inputs information from input device to application 1103 Acquires application name, component ID, and action 1104 Application name 1105 The points corresponding to the action and the component ID are acquired. 1105 The points are added to the usage record of the day. 1106 The application name, the component ID and the action are passed to the application. 1107 The application executes the specified action.

Claims (3)

Usage status of the application installed in the client device, comprising one or more client devices installed with one or more applications and a server device communicably connected to the client devices via a network Application usage status measurement system that monitors the usage efficiency and measures its usage efficiency,
The client device is
Basic information registration means for registering basic information of the one or more applications;
Operation contribution point registration means for registering an operation contribution point indicating a degree to which an operation on a component included in the one or more applications contributes to efficient use of the one or more applications;
A first storage device for storing the basic information of the one or more applications registered by the basic information registration means and information of the motion contribution points registered by the motion contribution point registration means;
Input information detecting means for detecting input information for the one or more applications from one or more input devices;
Using the information about the application included in the input information detected by the input information detection means, the basic information and the motion contribution point stored in the first storage device are searched, and the corresponding motion contribution point is determined. Action contribution point collecting means for collecting;
A second storage device for storing the motion contribution points collected by the motion contribution point collection means in the one or more applications every day;
Action contribution point storage means for storing action contribution points collected by the action contribution point collection means in the second storage device;
With
The server device
An application usage state measurement system comprising: an operation contribution point information storage device that stores information for determining an operation contribution point related to an operation on a component of the one or more applications.   The application usage measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the application is either a client application or a Web application.   The application usage measurement system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more input devices include at least a keyboard and a mouse.

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