Distributed product development

摘要

Product development is accomplished through a plurality of product development tools, each tool assisting in a separate aspect of product development. Each tool has at least one instantiation of a tool module implementing tool logic and a tool database accessible by each tool module. Each product development tool communicates with a global readiness database. The readiness database includes common information accessible by more than one of the product development tools. At least one product supply tool accesses the readiness database to read product development information.