International Business Machines Corporation

Man Mohan Singh

Amaresh Rajasekharan

Annap Derebail

Sai Zeng

Ioana Boier-Martin

Mila Keren

Jose Gomes

Laurent Balmelli

Julia Rubin

José Gomes

Cross-domain integration within product lifecycle management can include providing a plurality of finite state machines (FSMs), wherein each FSM is associated with one business object of an integration flow between a first enterprise information system and a second enterprise information system. Each FSM defines a plurality of lifecycle states of the associated business object. A business rule can be associated with each lifecycle state of each FSM. For each FSM, the associated business rules are independent of the FSM. For a selected lifecycle state of each FSM, the associated business rule defines a condition causing a transition from the selected lifecycle state to a next lifecycle state of the FSM. A network of the plurality of FSMs is established by providing communication links among individual ones of the plurality of FSMs according to the business rules. The communication links define the integration flow.

Cross domain integration in product lifecycle management

A computer-implemented method supporting collaborative product development. A plurality of artifacts associated with the collaborative product development is maintained under revision control in a first repository. Each artifact has a plurality of lifecycle states and each artifact is associated with a first finite state machine (FSM) that defines lifecycle state transitions for the artifacts. A plurality of artifact tuples associated with the collaborative product development is maintained under revision control in a second repository. At least one artifact tuple is comprised of at least one access information providing access to at least one of said plurality of artifacts in the first repository. Each artifact tuple has a plurality of lifecycle states and each artifact tuple is associated with a second finite state machine (FSM) that defines lifecycle state transitions for the artifact tuples. There exists a set of lifecycle state transition mappings which maps all valid lifecycle state transitions for an artifact with desired lifecycle state transitions for an artifact tuple and all valid lifecycle state transitions for an artifact tuple with desired lifecycle state transitions for an artifact. A workflow process relating to an evolution of an artifact or artifact tuple is expressed through sequencing of one or more members of the said lifecycle state transition mappings set.

Method and apparatus for enabling collaborative product development processes

A plurality of artifacts, in a plurality of repositories, are maintained under revision control. A plurality of artifact tuples, in another repository, are maintained under revision control. At least one first artifact tuple comprise first information providing access to at least one of the artifacts. At least one second artifact tuple comprises second information providing access to at least one other artifact tuple. Each of the artifact tuples are associated with at least one of a plurality of product development processes. An apparatus comprises a plurality of repositories, each maintaining under revision control a plurality of artifacts and another repository that maintains under revision control a plurality of artifact tuples. A workflow process is adapted to allow users to associate each of the artifact tuples with at least one of a plurality of product development processes.

Techniques supporting collaborative product development

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Yorktown Heights, NY, United States of America

Man Mohan Singh