Specifications automation system and method

摘要

A method of leveraging computer technology to guide the user to create, display, and edit architectural and engineering information in ways specific to the architect's or engineer's needs in specification development is provided. This is provided in software that allows the automatic creation and management of architectural and/or engineering workflows, including but not limited to: procurement, quality assurance, and design, driven by engineering specifications and requirements contained therein and therewith. For each specification paragraph, in addition to the main textual component, appropriate attributes and/or elements are created and defined by a schema to support multitasking and the storing of related information for related purposes.

主权项

1. A method of automatic discovery and differencing of multiple corporate business unit specific views based on a single multi-purpose specification loaded in a computer memory, said method comprising the steps of:
detecting user definition of specification-related metadata of the single multi-purpose specification loaded in the computer memory, the single multi-purpose specification including a plurality of paragraphs; based on the detected specification-related metadata, automatically populating a menu with a plurality of view choices for the single multi-purpose specification, each view choice corresponding to a corporate business unit specific specification view generatable from the single multi-purpose specification, each corporate business unit specific specification view showing only paragraphs of the plurality of paragraphs of the single multi-purpose specification that are applicable to a related corporate business unit, the paragraphs of the plurality of paragraphs that are shown to differ from those shown in one or more other corporate business unit specific specification views; for at least one corporate business unit specific specification view generated from the single multi-purpose specification, calculating a difference between the at least one corporate business unit specific specification view and another corporate business unit specific specification view; displaying the difference in a current specification view; and collapsing or expanding the current specification view according to user view selection.