JP2014232505A - Inter-item association generation support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inter-item association generation support device capable of supporting association of items, reducing time and effort required for the association, and improving association accuracy.SOLUTION: Provided is an inter-item association generation support device, which is configured to generate association between items of products after data of the products is inputted therein, includes: a term analysis unit for analyzing description of each item in product data and creating a term list by collecting the terms extracted from the item; a relation extraction unit for extracting information regarding which of terms in the term list are related to each item and creating a relation list in which terms used in the item are listed for each product; a relation analysis unit for analyzing the relation list and creating a traceability matrix showing association of the items using the common term between the data of the products; and a relation display unit for displaying the traceability matrix in a predetermined mode.

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to an inter-item relation generation support apparatus.

  The importance of traceability is increasing in system software development.

  As for the association between items to build traceability, manual work is common, but there is a problem that the labor is increased in proportion to the increase of the target scale.

  In association using simple common keywords, there is a problem that unnecessary association due to connection with general terms and similar words cannot be associated.

JP 2009-151627 A JP 2010-204910 A

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an inter-item relation generation support apparatus that can support association, reduce the labor of association, and improve the accuracy of association.

  An inter-item relation generation support device according to an embodiment is an inter-item relation generation support device that inputs product data and generates an association between product items, and analyzes the explanation of the item of the product data. A term analysis unit that creates a term list that summarizes the terms extracted from the item, and a term used by the item by extracting information on which of the terms in the term list the item relates to A relation extraction unit that creates a related list for each deliverable, and a traceability that analyzes the related list and indicates a relation between the items having a term commonly used among the deliverable data. A related analysis unit that creates a matrix and a related display unit that displays the traceability matrix in a predetermined manner.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the inter-item relation production | generation assistance apparatus which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure explaining the deliverable data in case a deliverable is a document. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of an item relation production | generation. It is a figure explaining preparation of the term list in a term analysis part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in a term analysis part. It is a figure explaining the relation extraction in a relation extraction part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process in a related extraction part. It is a figure explaining the related analysis in a related analysis part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in a related analysis part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in a related display part and a term display / edit part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in a related display part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in a related display part. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in a related display part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process in a related display part. It is a figure explaining edit of a valid flag. It is a figure explaining edit of a valid flag. It is a figure explaining the edit of an associative term. It is a figure explaining reflection of edit contents. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process in a term display / edit part.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  First, main terms used in the present embodiment will be described.

  “Traceability” refers to traceability between items of deliverables (required specifications, design, implementation, test, etc.). It is used to check the validity of design and implementation (is there any omissions or contradictions) and to understand the scope of impact on change requests.

  An “item” refers to a part of a product that is a unit for association. For example, in the deliverable “required specification”, “required” and “required specification” are items. The granularity varies depending on the purpose of traceability utilization.

  A “traceability matrix” refers to a table showing the association between items of two deliverables. There are table formats, direct description methods, network diagrams, and so on.

  In the present embodiment, association support is performed by automatically creating a term list creation support and association candidates between two product items.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an inter-item relation generation support apparatus according to the present embodiment. The item relation generation support apparatus is realized using a general-purpose computer (for example, a personal computer (PC) or the like) and software operating on the computer. The computer includes an engineering workstation (EWS) suitable for CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering). The present embodiment can also be implemented as a program that causes such a computer to execute a series of processes for creating a term list creation support and association candidate between two product items.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the inter-item relation generation support apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is roughly classified into a term analysis unit 10, a relation extraction unit 20, a relation analysis unit 30, a relation display unit 40, and a term display / editing unit. 50, a product data storage unit 60, a term list storage unit 70, a related list storage unit 80, and a traceability matrix storage unit 90.

  The user selects a target deliverable from a plurality of deliverables according to the purpose of use of the apparatus, such as confirmation of whether the relation between items is appropriate by the inter-item relation generation support apparatus 100, Create association combinations. For example, for the purpose of confirming whether the basic design satisfies the required specifications, the association between “required specifications” and “basic designs” is targeted. Or, for the purpose of confirming whether "Required Specification" is correctly implemented in "Source Code", "Required Specification" and "Basic Design", "Basic Design" and "Detailed Design", "Detailed Design" and "Source" Create three sets of associations of “code”.

  In the present embodiment, a product A “required specification” and a product B “basic design” are targeted, and the case where they are associated will be described as an example.

  The inter-item relation generation support apparatus 100 inputs the product data through a user interface (not shown) or the like, and makes the product data storage unit 60.

  The term analysis unit 10 analyzes the item description of the product data and creates a “term list”. The created term list is stored in the term list storage unit 70.

  The relation extraction unit 20 extracts information about what each item of the deliverable data relates to among valid terms in the term list, and summarizes it into a “related list”. At the same time, the number of times each term is used is recorded in the usage number of the term list. The created related list is stored in the related list storage unit 80.

  The association analysis unit 30 associates items having common terms in the items of the product A “required specification” and the product B “basic design”. Since the terms in the item description are output to the related list as related information, the related analysis unit 30 summarizes the analyzed contents in a traceability matrix. The created traceability matrix is stored in the traceability matrix storage unit 90. The association analysis unit 30 records the number of combinations in which each term is commonly used as the number of associations in the term list simultaneously with the association.

  The relation display unit 40 displays the relation between the items of the product A “required specification” and the product B “basic design”.

  The term display / editing unit 50 displays term information, helps the user to understand, and enables various editing by the user as described later.

  The user processes the target product and creates product data as advance preparation for confirming the relationship between items in the inter-item relationship generation support apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining product data when the product is a document. As shown in FIG. 2, when the deliverable is a document such as “requirement specification” or “basic design document”, the contents of each document are itemized in accordance with the line feed. The obtained product data includes, for example, “item ID” and “description” as components. If the granularity of the item does not meet the purpose of use, it is desirable for the user to manually adjust the item.

  The deliverable is not limited to a document, and may be a graph or a source code.

  The flow of the item relation generation support in the item relation generation support device 100 configured as described above will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for creating an item relation. Details of each process will be described later.

  First, the user prepares target product data (step S31).

  Next, the item description of the deliverable data is analyzed, and a term list is created (step S32).

  Next, the item description of the deliverable data is analyzed, and a related list listing the terms used by each item is created (step S33).

  Next, an item having a term commonly used between the two product data is associated (step S34).

  Subsequently, the created traceability matrix is displayed by a method designated by the user (step S35).

  Next, it is determined whether the contents of the traceability matrix are appropriate for the user (step S36).

  If the contents of the traceability matrix are not appropriate (No in step S36), the term list is corrected (step S37), and the process proceeds to step S33.

  On the other hand, if the contents of the traceability matrix are appropriate (Yes in step S36), the inter-item relation generation process is terminated.

<Term analysis>
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the creation of a term list in the term analyzing unit 10. As shown in FIG. 4, a word is extracted from the item description. In terminology extraction, sentences are divided into words and analyzed. As a method of carving, there are nouns only, nouns and verbs, noun pairs, noun + verb pairs (for example, “lamp” + “light”), and the like.

  In the term list, for example, “term”, “number of uses”, “number of associations”, “valid flag”, and “associative term” are created as components. “Number of uses” is the number of item IDs in which the term is used. The “relevance number” is the number of combinations whose terms are common between the product A “required specification” and the product B “basic design”. The “valid flag” is a flag indicating whether or not to use as a commonly used term when associating items. “Associative terms” is a list of words that are treated as words representing the same meaning.

  At the time when a word to be registered is added to the term list, the number of uses and the number of associations is “none”, the valid flags are all “Yes”, and the associative terms are “none”.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the term analysis unit 10.

  First, the term analysis unit 10 inputs target product data (step S51).

  Next, a word is extracted from the item description of the product data (step S52).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the extracted word is a registration target in the term list (step S53). If it is a registration target (Yes in step S53), after registering in the term list (step S54), it is determined whether or not all words have been checked (step S55).

  On the other hand, if it is not a registration target (No in step S53), the process proceeds to step S55.

  If all the words have been checked (Yes in step S55), it is determined whether or not all the product data has been input (step S56).

  If all the product data has not been input (No in step S56), the process proceeds to step S51. On the other hand, if all the product data has been input (Yes in step S56), the process in the term analysis unit 10 is terminated.

<Relevant extraction>
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the relation extraction in the relation extraction unit 20. As shown in FIG. 6, the relation extraction unit 20 extracts information as to what each item of the deliverable data relates to among valid terms in the term list and creates it as a “related list”. At the same time, the number of times each term is used is recorded in the usage number of the term list. In the relation extraction stage, associative terms are not registered and are not used. The related list is created, for example, with “item ID” and “term” as components.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the relation extraction unit 20.

  First, the relation extraction unit 20 inputs target product data (step S71).

  Next, a word is extracted from the item description of the product data (step S72).

  Next, it is determined whether the extracted word is in the term list or associative term and is a valid word (step S73). If it is in the term list or associative term and is a valid word (Yes in step S73), it is registered in the related list (step S74).

  Next, after adding 1 to the usage number of the term list (step S75), it is determined whether or not all items have been checked (step S76).

  On the other hand, if the extracted word is not in the term list or the associative term or is not a valid word (No in step S73), the process proceeds to step S76.

  If all items have been checked (Yes in step S76), it is determined whether or not all the product data has been processed (step S77). If all items have not been checked (No in step S76), the process proceeds to step S72.

  If all the product data has been processed (Yes in step S77), the processing in the related extraction unit 20 is terminated. If all the product data has not been processed (No in step S77), the process proceeds to step S71.

<Related analysis>
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the association analysis in the association analysis unit 30. As shown in FIG. 8 (a), the relation analysis unit 30 associates items having common terms in the items of the product A “required specification” and the product B “basic design”. Are output to the related list as related information and collected in a traceability matrix. In the example shown in FIG. 8A, “member list” and “member ID” are used in common. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8B, simultaneously with the association, the number of combinations in which each term is shared is recorded in the number of associations in the term list.

For the determination of “related” and “not related”, for example,
(1) Use at least one common term (2) Use a term that is more than a certain percentage (3) Weight the terms with importance, and the sum of the importance is above a certain level It is preferable to determine “relevant” in any of the cases. In any case, it is not limited to these.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the relation analysis unit 30.

  First, the relation analysis unit 30 inputs a term in the item of the product A “required specification” from the relation list (step S91).

  Next, the term in the item of the product B “basic design” is input from the related list (step S92).

  Subsequently, it is determined whether there is a common term (step S93).

  If the terms are common (Yes in step S93), the relationship between the item of the product A “required specification” and the item of the product B “basic design” is set to “related” in the traceability matrix (step S94).

  Next, 1 is added to the number of associations in the term list (step S95).

  Subsequently, it is determined whether or not all items of the product B “basic design” have been checked (step S96).

  If No in step S93 (not a common term), the process proceeds to step S96.

  If all items of the product B “basic design” are checked (Yes in step S96), it is determined whether or not all items of the product A “required specification” are checked (step S97). If all items of the product B “basic design” are not checked (No in step S96), the process proceeds to step S92.

  If all items of the product A “required specification” are checked (Yes in step S97), the processing in the related analysis unit 30 is terminated. On the other hand, if all items of the product A “required specification” are not checked (No in step S97), the process proceeds to step S91.

<Related display>
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a display example in the related display unit 40 and the term display / editing unit 50. In FIG. 10A, “detailed information”, “common terms” and “traceability matrix” in a tabular form are shown in order to display the relationship between the items of the deliverable A and the deliverable B. In the display of the related display section 40, it is preferable that the used terms are highlighted in the “detailed information”, or the commonly used terms are displayed in different colors. In FIG. 11, information related to a portion [A3-B3] selected by the user (the focus operation has been performed by the user) is highlighted in the tabular traceability matrix. Similarly, in FIG. 12, in the traceability matrix in the direct description format, information related to the portion [A3-B3] selected by the user is highlighted. Further, in FIG. 13, in the traceability matrix of the network diagram, information related to the portion [A3-B3] selected by the user is highlighted.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the related display unit 40.

  First, a traceability matrix is displayed on the related display unit 40 (step S141).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the focus has been changed (step S142).

  If there is a change in focus (Yes in step S142), the required specification, basic design item and description of the portion with focus are displayed (step S143). If there is no focus change (No in step S142), the process waits repeatedly.

  Subsequently, the terms used in the required specification and basic design items of the focused part and the usage status are displayed (step S144).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the edit content reflection button shown in FIG. 10 has been pressed (step S145). The edit content reflection button is an operation button for confirming the content edited by the user and reflecting it on the display.

  If the edit content reflection button has been pressed (Yes in step S145), the process in the related display unit 40 ends. If the edit content reflection button is not pressed (No in step S145), the process proceeds to step S142.

<Term display / Term editing>
FIG. 10B is an example of the display of the term display / editing unit 50. For example, a term list and a list of items using a specific term are displayed. The user can edit the valid flag.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining the editing of the valid flag. Displaying a list of items is not essential, but displaying an item description related to a term makes it easier for the user to determine whether the validity flag is set appropriately. The term part is preferably displayed differently from others, such as highlighting or coloring. In the example shown in FIG. 15, the valid flag of “book” is edited to “No”.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining the editing of the valid flag. Unnecessary association can be prevented by setting the valid flag of the term not related to association to “No”. In the example shown in FIG. 16, items that are associated with each other that should not be associated are edited into appropriate associations.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating editing of associative terms. Display terms in the term list and register associated terms for each term. As a result, even when different terms are used in the same meaning, the association can be performed appropriately.

  In the display example shown in FIG. 10, the term list is displayed separately for editing and for reference, but not for reference, and associative terms are added by dragging and dropping in the editing table. It doesn't matter.

  FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining the reflection of the editing content. The content edited by the term display / editing unit 50 is subjected to the related extraction and the related analysis again by pressing the edited content reflection button, and the result is reflected. In the example shown in FIG. 18, the addition of “user list” as an associative term of “member list” and the change from “Yes” to “No” of the valid flag of “book” are reflected.

  FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the term display / editing unit 50.

  First, an editing term list and a reference term list are displayed on the term display / editing unit 50 (step S191).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the focus of the editing term list has been changed (step S192). It should be noted that the determination of whether or not there is a focus change is preferably performed continuously for a predetermined time.

  If the focus of the editing term list has been changed (Yes in step S192), then the required specifications, basic design items, and explanation of the focused part of the editing term list are displayed (step S193).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the focus of the reference term list has been changed (step S194). It should be noted that the determination of whether or not there is a focus change is preferably performed continuously for a predetermined time. If there is no focus change in the editing term list (No in step S192), the process proceeds to step S194.

  If the focus of the reference term list has been changed (Yes in step S194), then the required specifications, basic design items, and explanation of the portion of the reference term list that has the focus are displayed (step S195).

  Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the edit content reflection button has been pressed (step S196).

  If there is no focus change in the reference term list (No in step S194), the process proceeds to step S196.

  If the edit content reflection button has been pressed (Yes in step S196), the processing in the term display / editing unit 50 ends. If the edit content reflection button is not pressed (No in step S196), the process proceeds to step S192.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to support association between items of two deliverables, to reduce the labor, and to efficiently create a highly accurate association.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Inter-item relation generation support apparatus 10 ... Term analysis part 20 ... Relation extraction part 30 ... Relation analysis part 40 ... Relation display part 50 ... Term display / editing part 60 ... Product data storage unit 70 ... Term list storage unit 80 ... Related list storage unit 90 ... Traceability matrix storage unit

Claims (12)

An inter-item relation generation support device that inputs product data and generates an association between items of the product,
Analyzing a description of the item of the deliverable data, and creating a term list that summarizes the terms extracted from the item;
A relation extraction unit that extracts information on which of the terms in the term list is related to the item and creates a related list that lists the terms used by the item for each of the deliverables;
A relation analysis unit that analyzes the relation list and creates a traceability matrix indicating a relation between the items having terms commonly used among the deliverable data;
An inter-item relation generation support device including a related display unit that displays the traceability matrix by a predetermined method.   The inter-item relation generation support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a term display / editing unit that displays the term list and enables a user to perform an editing operation. A deliverable data storage unit for storing the deliverable data;
A term list storage for storing the term list;
A related list storage unit for storing the related list;
The inter-item relation generation support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a traceability matrix storage unit that stores the traceability matrix.   The inter-item relation generation support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the term analysis unit extracts terms by dividing and analyzing sentences into words. The term list is
A usage number representing the number of the item in which the term is used;
A number of associations representing the number of combinations in which the term is shared between the deliverable data;
A valid flag indicating the term used in common when the item is associated;
The inter-item relation generation support device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising associative terms that are lists of words treated as words expressing the same meaning as constituent elements.   The inter-item relation generation support device according to claim 5, wherein the relation extraction unit records the number of times the term is used in the number of uses of the term list.   The inter-item relation generation support device according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the relation analysis unit records, in the number of relations in the term list, the number of combinations in which the term is common among the deliverable data. .   The inter-item relation generation support device according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the term analysis unit uses an effective flag indicating a commonly used term when associating items.   The inter-item relation generation according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the term analysis unit determines that there is a relation between the terms when using terms that are common for a predetermined ratio or more. Support device.   10. The term analysis unit according to claim 5, wherein the term analysis unit weights the terms with importance, and determines that the terms are related when the sum of the importance is equal to or greater than a certain value. The item relation generation support device according to item.   11. The item according to claim 5, wherein the term display / editing unit allows a user to edit the valid flag, and the editing result is reflected in the term list and the traceability matrix. Inter-related generation support device.   The item according to any one of claims 5 to 11, wherein the term display / editing unit allows a user to edit the associative term, and the edited result is reflected in the term list and the traceability matrix. Inter-related generation support device.

Images