JP2000112611A - Method for displaying software development document and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently understand information of a software development document consisting of plural documents at the time of maintaining and reutilizing a software. SOLUTION: In this display method, a computer software development document is displayed on a display by utilizing information where the hierarchical structure of configuration elements in the software development document such as a request specification and a design specification and dependence relation between the configuration elements of the documents are defined and recorded. Information of the hierarchical structure is displayed, information of dependence relation is referred when the configuration elements are designated so that an index picture for retrieving and displaying the kind of the configuration element being in dependence relation with the configuration element is displayed on the display. A minute information picture displaying contents information of the configuration element is displayed on the display and a document link can be treated in the display contents of the contents information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for displaying a software development document for displaying a desired document on a display from a computer software development document composed of a plurality of electronic documents, and a method for displaying a plurality of computerized documents. The present invention relates to a storage medium storing a program for displaying a desired document from a computer software development document including a document on a display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Computer software development is generally divided into requirements analysis, design, programming, and testing processes, and during development, a document (hereinafter simply referred to as a "computer") in which work results are digitized for each process. (Hereinafter referred to as "software development document"). Examples of such software development documents include requirement specifications and design specifications, which are text documents created by a word processor, programs, and output files from a CASE tool.

[0003] These software development documents are not merely records at the time of development, but are modified and maintained as long as the life of the developed software is maintained. It is important to keep the contents of all documents consistent with changes due to some maintenance. For example, if you modify a program,
That has to be reflected in the relevant design specification, and vice versa.

[0004]

An H that can be referred to on the WWW
In the case of a hypertext such as a TML document, it is realized that the document is embedded in the document in the form of a document link. However, the document link is unidirectional, fixed, and does not have semantic information of the document link itself. For this reason, there is a problem that a flexible user interface such as dynamically changing display contents or creating a different view for a user cannot be realized. Further, in a general WWW browser, there is a problem that as a result of neglecting a document link, unnecessary information is searched for or a target to be searched may be lost.

An object of the present invention is to maintain software,
An object of the present invention is to provide a software development document display method and a storage medium that can efficiently understand information of a software development document including a plurality of documents when reusing the document.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software development document display method for displaying a desired document on a display from a computer software development document including a plurality of electronic documents. Software for displaying the computer software development document on a display using information recorded by defining and recording the hierarchical structure of the components of each document and the dependencies of the components between the documents. This is how to display development documents.

[0007] Therefore, the computer software development document can be displayed on the display by using the information on the hierarchical structure of the components of each document and the dependency between the components between the documents. The information in the software development document can be efficiently understood by limiting the target range.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, information of a hierarchical structure is displayed, and when a component is designated, the component is referred to by referring to information of a dependency. An index screen for retrieving and displaying the type of the constituent element having a dependency relationship is displayed on a display.

Therefore, the information of the hierarchical structure and the types of the components that are dependent on the designated component can be displayed on the display. Information can be efficiently understood.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, a detailed information screen for displaying content information of a component is displayed on a display, and the content information includes a document link in the display content. It can be handled.

Therefore, since the document link can be used for displaying the content information of the component, the information of the software development document can be efficiently understood.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the detailed information screen is configured such that when a document link display is designated, the document link destination is designated by referring to the information of the dependency relationship. When there is no dependency with the element, the fact is displayed.

Therefore, when the document link destination is not dependent on the component specified by referring to the information on the dependency, this is displayed, so that the information of the software development document can be understood efficiently.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a computer-readable program is stored, and the program displays a desired document from a computer software development document including a plurality of electronic documents on a display. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the display on the display is information recorded by defining a hierarchical structure of components of each document and a dependency between components between the documents. The storage medium is characterized in that the storage medium is performed by using a storage medium.

Therefore, the computer software development document can be displayed on the display by using the information on the hierarchical structure of the components of each document and the dependency between the components between the documents. The information in the software development document can be efficiently understood by limiting the target range.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the present invention, the display on the display shows information of a hierarchical structure, and when a constituent element is designated, information of a dependency relation is displayed. And displaying an index screen for retrieving and displaying the type of the component having a dependency relationship with the component with reference to the index.

Therefore, the information of the hierarchical structure and the types of the components that are dependent on the designated component can be displayed on the display, so that the software development document is limited by limiting the target range for the user to search. Information can be efficiently understood.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the display device according to the fifth or sixth aspect, the display on the display includes displaying a detailed information screen for displaying content information of a component on the display, Is characterized in that it is possible to handle a document link in the display content.

Therefore, since the document link can be used for displaying the content information of the component, the information of the software development document can be efficiently understood.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect of the present invention, the display on the display is such that when a document link display is designated, the document link destination has a dependency relationship. When there is no dependency relationship with the component specified from the information reference, this is displayed.

Therefore, when the document link destination is not dependent on the component specified by referring to the information on the dependency, this is displayed, so that the information of the software development document can be understood efficiently.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a software development document browsing apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of the software development document browsing apparatus 1. The browsing device 1 shown in FIG. 1 performs various calculations, and a central processing unit (CPU) 2 that centrally controls each unit has a ROM 3 that is a read-only memory storing a BIOS and the like, stores data in a rewritable manner, A RAM 8 serving as a work area, a magnetic disk 5 storing various files of programs and fixed data, a CD-ROM drive 6, a display 7, and the like are connected by a bus 8.

The program and fixed data stored on the magnetic disk 14 are stored on a CD-ROM 9 embodying the storage medium of the present invention, read by the CD-ROM drive 6 and installed on the magnetic disk 5. Things. That is, the browsing device 1 is operated by a browser for browsing software development documents installed on the magnetic disk 5. It goes without saying that various storage media such as a floppy disk and a magneto-optical disk can be used as the storage medium of the present invention.

Characteristic functions realized by the above-described software development document browsing apparatus 1 will be described below. 1. Definition and Expression of Document Components In the present embodiment, a software development document such as a requirement specification and a design specification defines a hierarchical structure including logical components. Then, such a document is defined by a markup language and an implementation means is adopted. That is, the type and structure of a specific component are defined for each type of document, and the component is expressed in a file format marked with a tag. When you launch your browser,
The parsing tool corresponding to the markup language reads the document and analyzes the unique components for each type of document, and generates a hierarchical document structure tree on the RAM 4.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a requirement specification having a hierarchical structure having functional specifications and constraint specifications as components, and a design specification having a hierarchical structure having module specifications as components. FIG. 3 shows an example in which a text document of a required specification and a text document of a design specification have a tree-like document structure.

A program also defines a hierarchical structure composed of logical components. Then, it is read by a syntax interpretation tool corresponding to the programming language, analyzes the components specific to the programming language, such as functions, classes, and data definitions, and generates a hierarchical document tree in the RAM 4.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a program having a hierarchical structure including packages, classes, and methods as components. FIG. 3 shows an example in which the program has a tree-like document structure. Have been.

In the case of the output file of the CASE tool, the components of the software model read by the syntax interpretation tool corresponding to the output file format and constructed on the CASE are analyzed, and the hierarchical document structure tree is created. Generated on RAM4.

As described above, the browser analyzes various software development documents and generates a document structure tree in which the same operation can be performed, so that the document information can be handled uniformly. 2. Definition and Expression of Relationship Information Between Components Generally, the content of a part of a document is closely related to the content of the same document or another document. In the case of software development documents, as described above, computer software development is divided into requirements analysis, design, programming, and testing steps, and each step is performed between documents in the direction from the upstream process to the downstream process. There are dependencies. For example, a design specification is derived in a design process based on a requirement specification described in a requirement analysis process, and at this time, there is a correspondence between components of the requirement specification and components of the design specification. Specifically, the description of the functional specification of printing included in the requirement specification may be reflected in the description of the specification of the PRINT subsystem included in the design specification.

FIG. 4 shows that the components of the function specification and the components of the design specification have a dependency relationship that the latter realizes the former function. Has a dependency relationship that the latter satisfies the former constraint, and there is a dependency relationship between the components of the design specification and the components of the program that the latter implements the former design. Specific examples of the dependencies between elements are shown.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the dependency existing between the components between the documents is defined as illustrated in FIG. Then, for the expression and recording, an expression in a mark-up language is adopted. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, a document component indicating what dependency exists between components of a hierarchical document structure of each software development document such as a requirement specification, a design specification, and a program. A dependency graph is generated in the RAM 4, and the configuration of the dependency graph is described in a description file relating to the dependency between document components. 3. Regarding the user interface of the browser, the browsing device 1 according to the present embodiment has a structure shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, there are two types of screens: an index screen 11 that displays a hierarchical structure of a certain document type, and a detailed information screen 12 that displays the contents of a certain component. These will be described.

(1) Index Screen 11 The index screen 11 displays a hierarchical structure of a document of a certain document type. In addition, it has a function that allows the user to select one or a plurality of menus from the screen. There are a plurality of index screens 11 such as a required specification index, a design specification index, and a program index according to the number of types of document types. When a user selects a certain document element on the index screen 11 (a plurality of document elements can be selected), one or both of the following two operations are performed.

A. The contents of the selected document component are displayed on the detailed information screen 12.

B. In order to search the selected document component for other related document-type components based on the dependency graph (see FIG. 3), and to notify the user of the existence of the found dependent component as a result. Then, the display on the index screen 11 is updated. Specifically, the user is notified by underlining or changing the font (see FIG. 7). FIG. 8 conceptually shows a specific processing procedure at this time. That is, the component designated by the user is notified to the dependency graph, and the component related to this component is searched for and identified in the dependency graph. Then, the display of the change of the display is notified to the related component, the information of the change of the component related to the screen of the component specified by the user is acquired, and the screen display is updated (as described above, the underline is underlined). (The index screen 11 is displayed by pulling or changing the font.)

(2) Detailed information screen 12 This is a screen for displaying the contents of a certain document component. If the display content includes a document link, it is possible to recognize that the user has selected the document link. However, if the document link destination does not have a dependency relationship, a dialog for confirming with the user is made to skip to the document link destination. FIG.
2 conceptually shows a specific processing procedure at this time. That is, the dependency graph (see FIG. 3)
The user is notified that the link displayed on the detail display screen 12 has been picked, and it is determined whether or not the linked component is a dependent component, and the result is returned. As a result of the determination, if the component has a dependency, the display on the detail display screen 12 is updated to the content. If not, inform the user and reconfirm whether to update the display.

4. How to browse Browsers can provide the user with all the information in the document if necessary. However, the user is confused about what to call and in what order, and often searches for unnecessary information, which is inefficient. Therefore, the browser is provided with a means for providing information suitable for the purpose of the user.

In particular, for both the case where one wants to understand the top-down process from the upstream process to the downstream process of the process of developing computer software, or the case where the user wants to understand the bottom-up process from the downstream process to the upstream process, the dependency graph ( By limiting or specifying the search range based on (see Fig. 3),
You can browse efficiently. Hereinafter, a typical use example will be described.

(1) Top-down understanding: Procedures for maintenance (including reuse) following a change in required specifications or constraint specifications a. Designation of target software: When the user specifies a software name from a list registered in the database, the browser thereafter enables browsing of a document for a software development document group having the software name.

B. Understanding of the maintenance target range: the user displayed on the index screen 11 {functional specification, restriction specification}
When one or more items to be subjected to the current maintenance are selected from the list, the design specifications and program components that may be affected by the current maintenance are displayed on the index screen 11.

C. Understanding detailed information: When the user specifies a component for which more detailed information is to be obtained, the browser searches for the information and displays it on the detailed information screen 12.

D. Document link destination jump on detailed information screen 12: If the display content of detailed information screen 12 includes a document link, the user can display the link destination information on detailed information screen 12. However, when the link destination is not a dependent component, the browser reconfirms with the user whether to update the display.

E. The user sets c. And d. To understand information about programs affected by maintenance.

(2) Bottom-up understanding: Procedure for referring to higher-level information such as functional specifications and design specifications from a program a. Same as above, or b. A user designates a component of a program from an index screen 11.

C. Items related to the components of the program, such as required specifications and design specifications, are clearly indicated on the index screen 11.

D. The user can select necessary components from the index screen 11 and read the contents displayed on the detailed information screen 12.

E. The user sets c. And d. By repeating the above, it is possible to understand the information on the program necessary for the maintenance.

According to the software development document browsing apparatus 1 described above, the computer software development document is displayed using the information on the hierarchical structure of the components of each document and the dependence of the components between the documents. 7, it is possible to efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range for the user to search.

The display 7 displays the information of the hierarchical structure and the types of the components that are dependent on the designated component.
, It is possible to efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range for the user to search.

Further, since the document link can be used for displaying the content information of the components, the information of the software development document can be efficiently understood.

In this case, if the document link destination does not have a dependency with the component specified by referring to the dependency graph, this is displayed, so that the information of the software development document can be understood efficiently. .

[0052]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a computer software development document is displayed on a display using information on a hierarchical structure of components of each document and information on a dependency between components between documents. Therefore, the user can efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range to be searched.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the information of the hierarchical structure and the types of the components that are dependent on the designated component can be displayed on the display. Thus, the user can efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range to be searched.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, a document link can be used for displaying the content information of the constituent elements, so that the information of the software development document can be understood efficiently. Can do well.

According to the invention described in claim 4, in the invention described in claim 3, when the document link destination does not depend on the component specified by referring to the dependency information, the fact is displayed. The information in the software development document can be efficiently understood.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, a computer software development document can be displayed on a display by using information on a hierarchical structure of components of each document and information on a dependency between components between documents. Therefore, the user can efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range to be searched.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the present invention, the information of the hierarchical structure and the types of the components which are dependent on the designated component can be displayed on the display. Thus, the user can efficiently understand the information of the software development document by limiting the target range to be searched.

According to the invention described in claim 7, in the invention described in claim 5 or 6, since the document link can be used for displaying the content information of the constituent elements, it is possible to efficiently understand the information of the software development document. Can do well.

According to the invention described in claim 8, in the invention described in claim 7, when the document link destination is not dependent on the component specified by referring to the dependency information, the fact is displayed. The information in the software development document can be efficiently understood.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical connection of a software development document browsing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of components of a software development document handled by the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a hierarchical structure of components of a software development document handled by the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a dependency relationship between components of a software development document handled by the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 5 is a table showing examples of types of dependencies between components of a software development document handled by the software development document browsing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing an example of screen display of the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the propagation of display updates between index screens of the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of a procedure for updating display between index screens of the software development document browsing device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a procedure for jumping to a document link on the detailed information screen of the software development document browsing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Software development document browsing device 9 Storage medium 11 Index screen 12 Detailed information screen

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A software development document displaying method for displaying a desired document on a display from a computer software development document comprising a plurality of electronic documents, the hierarchical structure of components of each document and the document A method for displaying a software development document, wherein the computer software development document is displayed on a display using information recorded by defining and recording dependencies between components. 2. An index for displaying information of a hierarchical structure and, when a component is specified, searching for and displaying the type of the component having a dependency with the component by referring to the information of the dependency. The method for displaying a software development document according to claim 1, wherein the screen is displayed on a display. 3. A detailed information screen for displaying content information of a constituent element on a display, wherein the content information can handle a document link in the display content. How to display software development documents. 4. The detailed information screen is for displaying, when a document link display is designated, if the document link destination does not have a dependency relationship with the component specified by referring to the dependency relationship information. 4. The method for displaying a software development document according to claim 3, wherein: 5. A computer-readable program stored in a computer, the program being capable of causing a computer to display a desired document on a display from a computer software development document including a plurality of electronic documents. In the storage medium, the display on the display is performed using information recorded by defining a hierarchical structure of components of each document and a dependency between components between the documents. Characteristic storage medium. 6. The display on the display displays information of a hierarchical structure, and when a component is designated, refers to the information on the dependency to determine the type of the component that is dependent on the component. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein an index screen for searching and displaying is displayed. 7. The display on the display is characterized in that a detailed information screen for displaying content information of a component is displayed on the display, and the content information can handle a document link in the display content. The storage medium according to claim 5. 8. The display on the display may be such that when a document link display is designated, if the document link destination is not dependent on the component specified by referring to the dependency information, the detailed information screen is displayed. 8. The storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the storage medium displays a message to the effect.