JP2010102606A - Product configuration determination support apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To support determination of a product configuration by obtaining possible other configuration plans from a plurality of product configuration plans for a product for which variation development is predicted and calculating the development costs. <P>SOLUTION: A product configuration determination support apparatus for supporting the determination of the achieving configuration of the product for which the variation development is predicted includes: a means 101 for acquiring the fluidity of product specifications from a user interactively or altogether; a product specification table 102 prepared on the basis of the obtained fluidity of the product specifications; a means 103 for acquiring the candidates of the achieving configuration of the product from the user interactively or altogether; a product configuration plan table 104 prepared on the basis of the obtained candidates of the achieving configuration of the product; and a means 105 for obtaining the candidates of the other achieving configuration on the basis of the candidates of the achieving configuration obtained from the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a product configuration determination support apparatus and method, and more particularly to a method for supporting determination of an actual configuration of a product group in which specification variations are considered.

  Many product developments are based on products that have been developed in the past, and new products are created by modifying and customizing products in response to differences in specifications. The cost of this correction / customization varies depending on the structure of the conventional product. Therefore, conventionally, a technique for estimating a necessary cost by analyzing a product structure when correction / customization is required has been emphasized. For example, the “software customization man-hour estimation system” of Patent Document 1 estimates the cost by determining which of the predetermined change patterns the correction / customization required for the specification change corresponds to. Is.

In recent years, "software product line" which develops the product group using the assets that become the basis of the product group after analyzing the variability of the specification in advance for the development of similar product group The approach is attracting attention. In this approach, it is necessary to design the asset structure after analyzing the variability of the specifications in advance, but when determining the asset structure, the cost required to develop the asset against the variability that is expected to occur in the future. Therefore, the conventional cost estimation technique described above cannot be applied. In particular, in a software system, there are many possible variations of the structure of a product or asset. Therefore, there is a large practical and psychological burden on examining an appropriate asset structure.
JP 2006-134335 A Paul Elements and Linda Northtrop, written by Takuo Maeda, translated “Software Product Line”, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, 2003

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is that, in determining the structure of the asset that is the basis of the product group, a large number of structure candidates are listed and the structure of the asset is determined by obtaining the realization cost for them. This is a burden.

The present invention is characterized by supporting the determination of the structure by the following three means.
(1) Based on the variability of product specifications acquired from the user and the structure candidates, other possible structures are obtained and presented to the user.
(2) The realization cost is calculated and presented to the user with respect to the structure candidates obtained from the user and other possible structures obtained by the means (1).
(3) In the calculation of the realization cost in the means (2), the occurrence probability of each specification in the variability of the product specification is taken into consideration.

  That is, the present invention is a product configuration determination device that supports the determination of an actual configuration of a product for which variation development is expected, and a means for interactively or collectively acquiring variability of product specifications from a user. Created based on the product specification table created based on the variability of the product specifications, means for acquiring the product realization configuration candidates interactively or collectively from the user, and the product realization configuration candidates obtained The product configuration decision support apparatus includes a product configuration plan table to be obtained and means for obtaining other realization configuration candidates based on the realization configuration candidates acquired from the user.

  Further, the present invention is a product configuration determination method for supporting determination of an actual configuration of a product for which variation development is expected, and includes obtaining a variability of product specifications interactively or collectively from a user. Creating a product specification table that is created based on the variability of the product specifications, obtaining product realization configuration candidates interactively or collectively from the user, and obtaining the product realization configuration candidates The product configuration decision support method includes a step of creating a product configuration plan table created based on the above and a step of obtaining other realization configuration candidates based on the realization configuration candidates acquired from the user.

  With the product configuration determination support apparatus and method of the present invention, possible structures other than the structures input by the user can be listed, and the realization costs can be calculated for those structures. Future product development costs can be reduced by reducing the burden and deriving a more appropriate asset structure.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described.
According to the present invention, an operation of determining an appropriate structure by obtaining an implementation cost for as many structure plans as possible is realized by a minimum user input.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a method for implementing a product configuration determination support method according to the present invention. The product specification acquisition unit 101 acquires the variability of the product specification from the user through dialog with the user or batch batch processing, and creates the product specification table 102.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of the product specification table 102. In this example, specification expression means in a tree structure format generally called a feature model is used, and the product specification table 102 shown in FIG. 2 is a table expressing the feature model 200. The specification item name column 201 represents the names of partial specification items constituting the product specification. Except for one of the specification items included in the overall specification of the product, the other specification items have “parent” and are entered and represented in the parent specification item name column 202. The columns 203 to 205 represent the variability of the specification. For the specification item having the parent specification item, one of the columns 203 to 205 is selected and a circle is entered. The specification item corresponding to the required column 203 must be included in the product specification. The specification item corresponding to the option column 204 is optional whether the specification item is included in the product specification. The specification item corresponding to the column 205 is indicated by a mark that only one of the other specification items that have the same parent specification item and are mutually exclusive is always included in the product specification. The probability column 206 represents the probability that an optional or mutually exclusive specification item is included in the product specification.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the product configuration plan acquisition unit 103 acquires a plurality of product configuration plans from the user through dialogue with the user or batch batch processing, and a product configuration plan table 104 for each of the product configuration plans. To get.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the product configuration plan table 104. The product configuration plan table 104 shown in FIG. 3 represents a configuration composed of eight elements A1 to A8 as shown in the feature model 300. The product configuration plan name column 301 represents the name of the product configuration plan, and this value is arbitrary as long as it does not overlap with other product configuration plan names. The element name column 302 represents the name of the component, and the specification item name column 303 represents the specification item to which the component corresponds. The prerequisite element name column 304 represents the names of other elements that are necessary when the element is used. In FIG. 3, an element A1 is necessary when the element A2 is used, and an arrow indicates that elements A7 and A8 are necessary when the element A3 is used. The development cost column 305 represents a development cost for developing the element. There are various indicators for this cost, such as development man-hours such as man-months and development scale such as the number of program steps.

  FIG. 4 shows a product configuration plan table used for explaining the present embodiment other than that shown in FIG. The structure of the product configuration plan tables 401 and 403 is the same as that of 104, and in the product configuration plan tables 104, 401, and 403, elements having the same element name are the same elements. Product configuration plan tables 401 and 403 represent product configurations shown in feature models 400 and 402, respectively.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the product configuration plan composition unit 105 obtains other possible product configurations based on all product configuration plan tables 104 and creates a composite product configuration table 106.

  FIG. 5 shows an operation flow diagram which is an implementation example of the product configuration proposal combining unit 105. In step 501, an element corresponding to each specification item is extracted from all product configuration plan tables (104, 401, 403 in this embodiment), and a specification item-element correspondence list table 502 is created.

  FIG. 6 shows an exemplary diagram of the specification item-element correspondence list table 502. The columns 201 to 206 are the same as the corresponding columns in the product specification table 102, and the contents of the corresponding element name column 601 are created by step 501. Based on the product configuration plan tables 104, 401, and 403, element names corresponding to the specification items F1 to F8 are entered. Particularly, in the part 602, since there are two elements B6 and B7 corresponding to the specification item F6 in the product configuration plan table 401, it indicates that all of them are necessary to realize the specification item F6.

  Returning to FIG. 5, in step 503, an element combination pattern list table 504 is created based on the created specification item-element correspondence list table 502.

  FIG. 7 shows an exemplary diagram of the element combination pattern list table 504. A combination pattern column 701 is a temporary number assigned to a combination of elements. Each column indicated by 702 indicates which element corresponds to each of the specification items constituting the product specification. The combination patterns 1 to 32 cover all the combinations as in the specification items F1 to F8. At the stage of step 503, all the determination fields 703 are blank, and are entered for each combination pattern after step 505 of the product configuration proposal composition unit 105.

  Returning to FIG. 5, in step 505, one combination pattern is selected from the element combination pattern list table 504, and the determinations in steps 506 and 507 are performed. In step 506, the selected combination pattern is checked for the presence or absence of elements that do not include the precondition elements defined in the product configuration plan table (104, 401, 403). . In step 507, using the specification item-element correspondence list table 502, a pattern in which elements corresponding to each specification item overlap is searched and checked, and if it overlaps, it is determined as a useless / complex element combination pattern. If there is an element combination pattern that has not been determined in step 508, the process returns to step 505. If determination has been made for all element combination patterns, the process proceeds to step 509. In step 509, the composite product configuration table 106 is created as a new product configuration plan for patterns that are not determined to be unacceptable and are not in the product configuration plan table.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of the composite product configuration table 106. This is for the combination pattern 32 of the element combination pattern table 504 shown in FIG. The meanings of the columns 801 to 805 are the same as the columns 301 to 305 of the product configuration plan table 104. The value in the development cost column 805 is obtained by transcribing the development cost for each element from the product configuration plan table (104, 401, 403). In the example of this embodiment, there is only one element combination pattern for creating the composite product configuration table in step 509.

  Returning to FIG. 1, in step 107, the development cost of each configuration plan is calculated based on the product configuration plan table (104, 401, 403) and the composite product configuration table 106, and the product configuration cost table 108 is created.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the product configuration cost table 108. The product configuration plan name column 901 shows the product configuration plan name described in the product configuration plan table or the composite product configuration table, and the element name list column 902 lists the element names included in the product configuration. ing. Both the column 903 and the column 904 indicate the costs calculated in step 107 for realizing the product configuration. A column 903 is a simple total of the development costs of the elements included in the product configuration, and represents the development cost when all the elements are developed. A column 904 is a development cost calculated in consideration of the probability that an option or mutual exclusion specification item described in the product specification table 102 is included in the product specification. It is a suitable cost when used for development. The development cost shown in the column 904 in FIG. 9 is obtained as follows for the development cost of each element.
-Development cost when the corresponding specification item includes the required item = Element development cost-Cost when the corresponding specification item is only an option item or a mutual exclusion item = Element development cost x Maximum occurrence probability

  Returning to FIG. 1, in step 109, based on the cost list table 108, the product configuration proposal and its realized cost are presented to the user. As a presentation method, a table format such as the cost list table 108 or a diagram format such as 200 in FIG. 3 can be considered. The content to be presented may be a product configuration plan with the lowest realization cost or a case where all product configuration plans are presented together with the realization cost.

  FIG. 10 shows a configuration example of a computer system used when the present invention is implemented as a product configuration determination support apparatus. The product specification acquisition unit 101, product configuration plan acquisition unit 103, product configuration plan composition unit 105, configuration cost calculation unit 107, and product configuration cost presentation unit 109 of FIG. 1 are stored in the auxiliary storage device 1005 by software, for example. The CPU 1001 sequentially executes the product configuration determination support device after the activation. Information acquisition from the user uses an input device 1002 such as a keyboard or a mouse, and information presentation to the user uses an output device 1003 such as a display or a speaker. Further, the product specification table 102, the product configuration plan table 104, the composite product configuration table 106, and the cost list table 108 in FIG. 1 are appropriately stored in the storage device 1005.

  The product configuration determination support method and apparatus implementation method of the present invention have been described above. As a result, if there is a realizable product configuration other than the product configuration proposal acquired from the user, it can be obtained and the development cost of each product configuration can be presented to the user.

  The present invention assumes a software system that can have many possible variations in the structure of products or assets as a main field of application, but it can also be applied to other product systems.

It is explanatory drawing which showed the implementation method of the product structure determination assistance apparatus of an Example. It is an illustration figure of the product specification table in an Example. It is an illustration figure of the product structure plan table with respect to one product structure used in an Example. It is an illustration figure of the product structure plan table with respect to the other product structure used in an Example. It is the operation | movement flowchart which showed the implementation example of the product structure proposal synthetic | combination part. It is an illustration figure of the specification item-element corresponding | compatible list table in the implementation example of a product structure proposal synthetic | combination part. It is an illustration figure of the element combination pattern list table in the implementation example of a product composition plan composition part. It is an illustration figure of the synthetic product structure table in an Example. It is an illustration figure of the product structure cost table in an Example. It is a structural example of the computer system which implements a product structure determination support apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 102 Product specification table 104 Product composition plan table 105 Product composition plan composition part 106 Composition product composition table 108 Product composition cost table 502 Specification item-element correspondence list table 504 Element combination pattern list table

Claims (10)

A product configuration determination device that supports the determination of an actual configuration of a product for which variation development is expected,
A means for interactively or collectively obtaining product specification variability from the user, a product specification table created based on the obtained product specification variability, and a product realization configuration candidate from the user interactively or Means for obtaining in a lump; a product configuration plan table created based on the obtained realization configuration candidates; and means for obtaining other realization configuration candidates based on realization configuration candidates obtained from a user; A product configuration determination support apparatus characterized by comprising: In the product configuration determination support device according to claim 1,
An element combination pattern list table created based on a table created by extracting elements corresponding to each specification item from the product configuration plan table, and whether or not a prerequisite element is satisfied for the combination pattern selected from the element combination pattern list table A product configuration determination support apparatus, comprising: means for determining whether or not the product is acceptable. In the product configuration determination support device according to claim 1,
A product configuration determination support apparatus comprising: means for calculating a realization cost for each realization configuration candidate; and means for presenting the realization cost calculated for each realization configuration candidate to a user. In the product configuration determination support device according to claim 3,
A product configuration determination support apparatus, characterized in that a means for presenting the realized cost calculated for each realized configuration candidate presents the best product configuration candidate to the user based on the calculated realized cost. In the product configuration determination support device according to claim 3,
A product configuration determination support apparatus, characterized in that a means for calculating a realization cost for a realization configuration candidate calculates the realization cost in consideration of an occurrence probability related to variability of product specifications. A product configuration determination method that supports the determination of the realization configuration of a product for which variation development is expected,
Obtaining product specification variability interactively or collectively from the user, creating a product specification table created based on the obtained product specification variability, and a product configuration candidate Interactively or in a batch, a step of creating a product configuration plan table created based on the obtained product configuration candidate, and other implementation configurations based on the acquired configuration candidate from the user. And a step of obtaining a candidate for realized configuration. The product configuration determination support method according to claim 6,
A step of creating an element combination pattern list table to be created based on a table created by extracting elements corresponding to each specification item from the product configuration plan table, and a prerequisite element for the combination pattern selected from the element combination pattern list table A product configuration determination support method comprising: a step of determining whether to satisfy or not. The product configuration determination support method according to claim 6,
A product configuration determination support method, comprising: a step of calculating a realization cost for each realization configuration candidate; and a step of presenting the realization cost calculated for each realization configuration candidate to a user. The product configuration determination support method according to claim 8,
Product configuration determination characterized in that the step of presenting the realized cost calculated for each realization configuration candidate to the user includes the step of presenting the user with the best product configuration candidate based on the calculated realization cost. Support method. The product configuration determination support method according to claim 8,
A product configuration determination support method, wherein the step of calculating a realization cost for a realization configuration candidate includes a step of calculating the realization cost in consideration of an occurrence probability related to variability of product specifications.

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