Support device, support system, and support method

Abstract

Without making any changes to existing servers, we eliminate duplicate past cases during the search phase while finding past failure cases related to the diverse failure patterns that may occur with the new features. [Solution] The support device, which connects to a system that stores past system development cases to assist in system development, includes a current node identification unit that identifies the current node to be searched based on a basic design input from an external source, a specific condition creation unit that creates conditions for determining modifications related to the identified current node, a query creation unit that creates a search query to query the system, a search unit that passes the search query to the system and receives the search results, an exclusion condition creation unit that identifies modification patterns based on the search results and creates exclusion conditions to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using the modification patterns, a next node selection unit that selects the next node to be searched after the current node, and a current node switching unit that sets the next node as the next current node.

Description

Technical Field

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[0001] The present invention relates to, for example, a support device, a support system, and a support method for searching past cases of software development.

Background Art

[0002] In the software development of an existing business system, information on past modifications is stored in a trouble information database. For such a business system, when developing an additional function, it is desirable to design it so that the same problems as those of the past modifications do not occur again.

[0003] In this case, for the processing included in the new function, a process is executed to investigate the modifications that occurred in the same processing in the existing function through a trouble information system that manages the trouble information database, and to examine whether the cause and countermeasures can be applied. In the investigation of the trouble information database, it is required to find past trouble events related to various trouble patterns that may occur in the operation of the new function.

[0004] As an existing method for realizing this, a method of finding a function of an existing system similar to the processing outline of a new function and finding past cases related to that function can be considered. In Patent Document 1, a method of associating documents with similar contents in a plurality of documents is disclosed, and thereby, a basic design document of an existing function similar to that of a new function can be specified from the basic design document of the new function.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0005]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0006] By using the technology described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to compare the description of the basic design of a new function with the basic design of a function of an existing system and measure the similarity using its distributed representation vector. Subsequently, by searching for past cases in which the modified parts match the processing blocks related to similar functions, it is possible to find past failure cases related to various failures that may occur with the new function.

[0007] One problem with existing methods is that a large number of duplicate past cases that fit similar patterns may be generated. While it is possible to filter these cases on the client side, such as a browser, when accessing the fault information system, it is difficult to know what kind of PC the client is using, and it is also difficult to impose a large amount of communication volume and processing load.

[0008] Alternatively, filtering could be implemented through additional processing on the server side where the fault information system resides, but this presents problems such as increased server load and operational complexity.

[0009] The task requires eliminating duplicate past cases without making changes to existing servers, while simultaneously finding past failure cases related to the diverse failure patterns that may occur with the new functionality.

[0010] This invention was made in view of the above background, and aims to provide a support device, support system, and support method that can find past cases (e.g., failure cases) related to various patterns (e.g., failure patterns) that may occur with new functions, while eliminating duplicate past cases during the search stage without making any changes to the existing server. [Means for solving the problem]

[0011] To solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the above objectives, one embodiment of the present invention is a support device that connects to a system that stores past system development cases to support system development, and is characterized by comprising: a current node identification unit that identifies the current node to be searched based on a basic design input from an external source; a specific condition creation unit that creates conditions for determining modifications related to the identified current node; a query creation unit that creates a search query to query the system; a search unit that passes the search query to the system and receives the search results; an exclusion condition creation unit that determines modification patterns based on the search results and creates exclusion conditions to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using those modification patterns; a next node selection unit that selects the next node to be searched after the current node; and a current node switching unit that sets the next node as the next current node.

[0012] Furthermore, another embodiment of the present invention is a support system for assisting system development, comprising: a system for storing past system development cases; and a support device for assisting system development based on the past cases of the system, wherein the support device includes: a current node identification unit that identifies the current node to be searched based on a basic design input from an external source; a specific condition creation unit that creates conditions for determining modifications related to the identified current node; a query creation unit that creates a search query to query the system; a search unit that passes the search query to the system and receives the search results; an exclusion condition creation unit that determines modification patterns based on the search results and creates exclusion conditions to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using those modification patterns; a next node selection unit that selects the next node to be searched after the current node; and a current node switching unit that sets the next node as the next current node.

[0013] Furthermore, another embodiment of the present invention is a system support method for supporting system development, characterized in that a search query is created with conditions for determining modifications to the current node from a basic design input from an external source, a search is performed using the search query against past system development cases stored in the system's memory, modification patterns are determined based on the search results, exclusion conditions are created using the modification patterns to avoid duplication in subsequent searches, and the search is repeated, with the next node to be searched after the current node being the next current node. [Effects of the Invention]

[0014] Without making any changes to existing servers, it is possible to eliminate duplicate past cases during the search phase while finding past cases (for example, failure cases) related to the diverse failure patterns that may occur with new functions. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0015] [Figure 1] This is a configuration diagram showing an example of a search support system according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] This is a schematic diagram illustrating a structured database according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] This is a configuration diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a search assistance device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] This is an explanatory diagram illustrating the data flow of a search assistance device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5] This is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example configuration of a basic design node for a structured database according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6A] This is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example configuration of a detailed design node for a structured database according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6B] This is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example configuration of a detailed design node for a structured database according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6C] This is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example configuration of a detailed design node for a structured database according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of an input message according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of a search node according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of specific conditions according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 10] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of a search query according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11A] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of search results according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11B] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of search results according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11C] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of search results according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 11D] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of search results according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 12] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of a correction pattern according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 13] It is an explanatory diagram for explaining a configuration example of exclusion conditions according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 14] It is a flowchart for explaining the processing flow of an exclusion condition creation unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0016] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the following description and drawings are merely examples for explaining the present invention, and for the sake of clarity of explanation, appropriate omissions and simplifications have been made. Also, the present invention can be implemented in various other forms. Also, unless otherwise limited, each component may be singular or plural.

[0017] In the following explanation, identical or similar structures may be denoted by the same symbol, and redundant explanations may be omitted. Also, in the following explanation, various types of information may be described using expressions such as "information" and "table," but these types of information may be represented by data structures other than these. Furthermore, while expressions such as "identification information," "identifier," "name," "ID," and "number" may be used to represent identification information, these can be substituted for each other. In the following explanation, "database" will be abbreviated as "DB" and "table" as "TBL."

[0018] First, the system configuration will be explained using Figure 1. Figure 1 is a diagram of the search support system of this embodiment. In this embodiment, the search support system is given as an example of a support system in system development. This search support system consists of a search support device 2, which is a support device, and a failure information system 4 that stores failure information from past system development. The search support device 2 is also connected to the user terminal 1 used by the user via a network (not shown), and has the function of extracting information on past modifications contained in the fault information DB 202 that may cause modifications in new functions of development systems such as business systems, based on input from the user terminal 1, and providing this information to the user terminal 1.

[0019] The fault information system 3, which is connected to the search support device 2 via a network (not shown), includes a fault information DB 203 that stores information about corrections that occurred in development systems developed in the past, and an API (Application Programming Interface) that searches for data according to queries.

[0020] The fault information DB203 contains information about past fixes, including reports from the fault discoverer, the results of the developer's investigation into the cause of the fault, the fixes implemented by the developer, and the names of the parts of the fix in the detailed design.

[0021] The search support device 2 has a structure DB 201 containing detailed designs for each development system included in the fault information DB 203, and comprises an input unit 101 that accepts input from the user terminal 1, a current node identification unit 102 that identifies the current node to be searched based on the input basic design (for example, text), a specific condition creation unit 103 that creates conditions for determining modifications related to the current node, a query creation unit 104 that creates a search query to query the fault information system 3, a search unit 105 that passes the search query to the fault information system 3 and receives the search results, an exclusion condition creation unit 106 that identifies modification patterns that appear in the search results and creates exclusion conditions to avoid duplication in subsequent searches, a next node selection unit 107 that selects the next node to be searched next, a current node switching unit 108 that sets the next node as the next current node, and an output unit 109 that presents the results so far to the user.

[0022] Next, the data structure will be explained using Figure 2. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure DB 201 of the search support device 2. The development systems included in the fault information DB 202 have their basic design and detailed design. As an example, Figure 2 shows development systems 210A, 210B, and 210C, but the number of development systems will vary depending on the number of developments and the configuration of structure DB 201.

[0023] In a development system, the basic design includes the names of the system's functions (function names), their overviews, and the structure of the subordinate functions. The detailed design then describes, for each function of the development system, the names, overviews, and names of other processes or data with which it has dependencies.

[0024] The structure DB201 contains basic design nodes 211, which are functions described in the basic design for each development system 210A, 210B, and 210C included in the failure information DB202, and detailed design nodes 212, which are processes and data described in the detailed design and have dependencies.

[0025] The search support device 2 is composed of, for example, a CPU 1001 that controls the entire device, a memory 1003 that stores programs 1002 such as processes to be executed by the CPU 1001 (see Figures 4 and 14) and various data being executed, an operating device 1004 equipped with a keyboard and display device, an external storage device 1005 that registers and stores various data in formats such as DB and TBL, a communication IF 1006 connected to the network 2000 and responsible for various external communications, and a bus 1007 connected to each unit within the device and responsible for internal data and signal communication within the device.

[0026] Next, the data flow will be explained using Figure 4. Figure 4 shows the data flow in the search support device 2. The input unit 101 creates an input message 301 that includes the name of the target development system and an overview of the new functions from the input of the user terminal 1.

[0027] The current node identification unit 102 measures the similarity between the overview of each basic design node for the development system targeted by the input message 301 included in the structure DB 201 and the overview of the new function of the input message, and stores the basic design node with the highest similarity as the initial node and current node of the search node (memory 1003).

[0028] The specific condition creation unit 103 creates a specific condition 303 in which the name of the target development system in the input message 301 is the "search target" and the current node of the search node 302 is the "modification location".

[0029] The query creation unit 104 creates a search query 304 that can be executed against the failure information system 3, such that it satisfies all the conditions included in the specific condition 303, and if there is an exclusion condition 307, it does not satisfy all the conditions included in that condition.

[0030] The search unit 105 sends the search query 304 to the fault information system 3 and receives the search results 305, which are a list of past corrections.

[0031] The exclusion condition creation unit 106 determines whether each case included in the search result 305 is a known pattern based on its similarity to the representative case of the correction pattern 306, if one exists. If the result is an unknown pattern, the case included in the search result 305 is registered as a representative case, and an exclusion condition is created so that the case included in the search result 305 does not hit, i.e., to avoid duplicate searches. If it is a known pattern, the exclusion condition is improved so that the case included in the search result 305 does not hit.

[0032] The next node selection unit 107 selects an unexplored node to be explored after the current node from among the detailed design nodes 212 under the structure DB 201 for the initial node in the search node 302, using a method such as breadth-first search.

[0033] If the next node is found in the next node selection unit 107, the current node switching unit 108 changes the current node of the search node to the node ID of the next node. Thereafter, the processing in the next node selection unit 107 is repeated, with each part from 103 to 108 being executed until no more unsearched nodes are found among the following nodes.

[0034] In the next node selection unit 107, if no unexplored nodes are found among the following nodes, the output unit 109 outputs a screen to the user showing the correction patterns 306 found so far.

[0035] Next, we will explain the basic design node using Figure 5. Figure 5 shows an example of a basic design node 211 in a business system included in the failure information database (hereinafter, business system A will be used as an example).

[0036] The basic design node 211 is created for the functions described in the basic design, and each basic design node 211 has a unique node ID 211a, the name of the function described in the basic design 211b, and a summary of that function described in the basic design 211c.

[0037] Next, we will explain the detailed design node using Figures 6A, 6B, and 6C. Figures 6A, 6B, and 6C each represent an example of a detailed design node 212 in a certain business system A included in the failure information DB 202.

[0038] Detailed design nodes 212 are created for the processes and data described in the basic and detailed designs for each function, and each detailed design node has a unique node ID 212a, a name 212b of the process described in the detailed design, a summary 212c of the process described in the detailed design, and subordinate nodes 212d that represent the node IDs of other detailed design nodes included in that process in the detailed design.

[0039] In the detailed design node 212 shown in Figure 6A, for example, node ID "B0101" is associated with the name "Journal Entry Input", its description "A function to input transaction information into the journal and register accounting data", and subordinate nodes "B0101-01, B0101-02, B0101-03, B0101-04, B0101-05, B0101-06, B0101-07, B0101-08".

[0040] In one example under node ID "B0101", node ID "B0101-02" is associated with the name "Account Selection", its description "A process for selecting accounts related to a transaction", and the subordinate nodes "B0101-02-01, B0101-02-02, B0101-02-03".

[0041] In an example of a sub-node one level below, node ID "B0101-02-01" is associated with the name "List of Accounts", its description "Displays a list of available accounts", and the status "No subordinate nodes".

[0042] Furthermore, in the detailed design node 212 shown in Figure 6B, in one example under node ID "B0101", node ID "B0101-04" is associated with the name "Journal Entry Data Confirmation", its description "A function to confirm generated journal entry data", and the subordinate nodes "B0101-01, B0101-02, B0101-03, B0101-04, B0101-05, B0101-06, B0101-07, B0101-08".

[0043] Furthermore, in the detailed design node 212 shown in Figure 6C, in one example under node ID "B0101", node ID "B0101-07" is associated with the name "Error Check", its description "A function that performs error checking of input and generated data", and the subordinate nodes "B101-07-01, 02, 03". Next, using Figures 7 to 10, we will explain an example of applying this to a certain business system A included in the failure information DB202. Figure 7 is an example of the input message configuration, Figure 8 is an example of the search node configuration, Figure 9 is an example of the specific condition configuration, and Figure 10 is an example of the search query configuration.

[0044] For example, user terminal 1 inputs the system name 301a, new function name 301b, and summary 301c of the input message 301 in Figure 7 through the input unit 101. This input message provides a summary of the new function related to the development of a new system.

[0045] For example, system name 301a is "Business System A," new feature name 301b is "Report Builder," and summary 301c is "A function that allows users to select a specific dataset and generate a custom report. Filtering, grouping, and aggregation are possible."

[0046] The current node identification unit 102 measures the similarity between the summary 211c of the basic design node 211 in the structure DB 201 for business system A and the summary of the new function, identifies the node ID 211a of the basic design node 211 with the highest similarity as "B0101", and stores it in the initial node 302a and related node 302b of the search node 302 in Figure 8.

[0047] The specific condition creation unit 103 first creates a specific condition 303 for the system name 301a of the input message 301, which has the condition that "the search target system matches "Business System A".

[0048] Furthermore, as shown in Figure 9, the node name 211b "Journal Entry Input" corresponding to the node ID "B0101" of the current node 302b is obtained from the structure DB 201, and the condition that "the "modification location" matches "Journal Entry Input" is stored in the specific condition 303 (memory 1003).

[0049] The query creation unit 104, for example, in the case of a fault information system that searches using SQL statements, creates the following SQL statement as the search query 304, which satisfies all of the specific conditions 303. This search query 304 is a query that incorporates exclusion conditions.

[0050] Here, as shown in the search query 304 in Figure 10, the category becomes SQL, and the value (SQL statement) becomes "SELECT * FROM (table of business system A) WHERE 'Modification location' = 'Journal entry input'".

[0051] The search unit 105 queries the fault information system 001 with the search query and receives the search result 305.

[0052] Next, the operation will be explained using Figures 11A to 11D, 12, 13, and 14. Figures 11A to 11D are explanatory diagrams illustrating example configurations of search results, Figure 12 is an example configuration of correction pattern 306, and Figure 13 is an example configuration of exclusion conditions. Figure 14 is a flowchart illustrating the processing flow of the exclusion condition creation unit.

[0053] As described above, the processing flow in the exclusion condition creation unit 106 when the search unit 105 receives the search results 305 is as shown in Figure 14. The exclusion condition creation unit 106 executes steps S101 to S105 for each data in the search results 305.

[0054] The exclusion condition creation unit 106 repeatedly performs the following actions for each search result after the completion of each search (steps S101 to S107): modifying the exclusion conditions, registering the modification patterns 306, and registering the exclusion conditions again. During this process, it also repeatedly performs the process of determining representative cases from known patterns (step S101). Here, the exclusion conditions are to ensure that the content does not contain the same words, and the modification is a process to prevent the same pattern from being found.

[0055] Specifically, the exclusion condition creation unit 106 measures the similarity of representative examples of each pattern included in the modification pattern 306 with the data of the search results described above (step S101). The exclusion condition creation unit 106 checks whether there are any known modification patterns whose similarity obtained in the measurement in step S101 is above a certain threshold (a predetermined threshold) (step S104). Here, a predetermined threshold is set in advance, and a determination process is performed to determine whether the similarity is above that predetermined threshold.

[0056] If no modification pattern with a similarity of a certain degree (a predetermined threshold) exists, the exclusion condition creation unit 106 adds a pattern using the search result as a representative example to the modification pattern 306 (S105), and adds a pattern to the exclusion condition 307 that uses all words other than stop words that are included in the cause and modification of the search result as the cause keyword and modification keyword, respectively (S106).

[0057] It should be noted that the representative example is not the best example extracted from past examples, but rather the first example found. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and conditions may be set to represent the best example. The prerequisite is that exclusion occurs during the search stage to avoid placing a load on the server. Creating specific conditions means identifying the document corresponding to the current node.

[0058] Furthermore, the node level (hierarchy) to which a new feature corresponds determines which node level to search from, which is the current node.

[0059] If there is a modification pattern with a similarity level above a certain level, the exclusion condition creation unit 106 excludes words that are not included in the search result data from the cause keyword and modification keyword of the exclusion condition 307 for the most similar known pattern (S107).

[0060] In this example, we consider sequentially searching the nodes B0101-01-01 to B0101-01-04 under B0101-01, and examples of past case data where each node is a modification point are shown in Figures 11A to 11D.

[0061] In the search result 305 shown in Figure 11A, for example, the problem description "Transaction information is not saved correctly" is associated with the cause "There is a bug in the process of saving to the database," the solution "The bug in the saving process has been fixed," and the location where the solution was applied "B0101-01."

[0062] Next, in the search results 305 shown in Figure 11B, for example, the problem description "The entered transaction date is not saved" is associated with the cause "Inconsistent date format", the solution "Unify the date format", and the location where the solution was applied "B0101-01-01 Transaction Date Input". In this way, search results under B0101-01 can be obtained.

[0063] Furthermore, in the search results 305 shown in Figure 11C, for example, the problem description "Customer name is garbled" is associated with the cause "Incompatible character encoding," the solution "Unify character encoding," and the location where the solution was applied "B0101-01-02 Transaction date input." In this way, search results under B101-01 can be obtained.

[0064] Furthermore, in the search result 305 shown in Figure 11D, for example, the bug description "decimal points are ignored when entering amounts" is associated with the cause "decimal point processing is not implemented", the solution "addition of decimal point processing", and the location where the solution was applied "B0101-01-03 amount input". In this way, search results under B101-01 can be obtained.

[0065] In the search from B101-01-01 to B101-01-03, no similar patterns were found, resulting in the creation of modification pattern 306 in Figure 12 and exclusion condition 307 in Figure 13.

[0066] Correction pattern 306, as shown in Figure 12, is a data structure that associates the cause and countermeasures with the nature of the problem. For example, in correction pattern #1, the problem is that "the entered transaction date is not saved," the cause is "inconsistent date format," and the countermeasure is "unify the date format." Similarly, in correction pattern #8, the problem is that "the transaction information input screen is slow," the cause is "poor front-end performance," and the countermeasure is "improve front-end performance."

[0067] Furthermore, as shown in Figure 13, exclusion condition 307 is a data structure in which a correction keyword is associated with a cause keyword, and it is an exclusion condition corresponding to the record number (#) of the correction pattern 306 described above. For example, in exclusion condition #1, the cause keyword is "date, format, mismatch," and the correction keyword is "date, format, unify." Similarly, in exclusion condition #8, the cause keyword is "frontend, performance, low," and the correction keyword is "frontend, performance, improve."

[0068] The above modification pattern 306 and exclusion condition 307 are stored in memory 1003.

[0069] In the search for B101-01-04, the second of the search results in Figures 11A to 11D is determined to be similar to the fifth example of modification pattern 306 in step S104. At this time, the keywords "future" and "date" are excluded from the keywords of the modification pattern and exclusion conditions so that the exclusion condition corresponds to the second of the search results.

[0070] The exclusion conditions for each modification pattern are that the cause must contain all cause keywords and the modification must contain all modification keywords. The query generation unit 104 creates a search query 304 that does not meet any of these conditions.

[0071] This creates an exclusion condition that prevents search results from being found, reducing the frequency of similar cases being found in subsequent searches. When performing searches on successive nodes, we want to know about cases other than those matching the modification pattern, so it is necessary to adjust the search process so that past cases matching the modification pattern are not found.

[0072] Once the search for all the detailed design nodes 212 under the initial node 302a of the search node 302 is complete, the output unit 308 presents the modified patterns 306 created up to that point to the user terminal 1.

[0073] As explained above, according to this embodiment, a search for past cases in existing functions similar to the new function is performed for each modification point in the detailed design, and subsequent queries are created so that keywords from past failure information obtained from the search results are not included, thereby obtaining only unknown failure patterns. Here, a failure pattern is a pattern of keywords for failures that are likely to occur in the development of a new system.

[0074] As a result, it becomes possible to find past failure cases related to the diverse failure patterns that may occur with the new function, while eliminating duplicate past cases during the search phase without making any changes to the existing server. In this case, there is no increase in server load, and operational complexity can be avoided.

[0075] Specifically, past correction cases are stored in a fault information DB202 on a fault information system 3. When a text summary of a new function is received from the user terminal 1 in response to user operation, the system identifies one of the most similar functions from the existing functions in the fault information DB202 and performs a search for corrections related to that function name. Subsequently, those with a similarity above a certain threshold in the search results are classified into the same pattern, and the query is designed so that corrections belonging to that same pattern are not found.

[0076] Then, in the related processing steps under the similar functions identified above, by sequentially performing searches using refined search queries 304 and repeatedly refining those search queries 304, it becomes possible to find past failure cases related to various failure patterns that may occur with the new function, while eliminating duplicate past cases at the search stage without making any changes to the existing system.

[0077] Furthermore, while the above-described embodiment used a mechanism for searching past failure cases as an example, the present invention is not limited to this and can also be applied to searching news articles, etc.

[0078] Furthermore, each of the above-mentioned configurations, functional units, processing units, processing means, etc., may be implemented in hardware, in whole or in part, for example, by designing them as integrated circuits. Alternatively, each of the above-mentioned configurations, functions, etc., may be implemented in software by having the processor interpret and execute programs that realize each function. Information such as programs, tables, and files that realize each function can be stored in memory, hard disks, SSDs (Solid State Drives), or other recording devices, or in recording media such as IC cards, SD cards, or DVDs.

[0079] Furthermore, the arrangement of the various functional units, processing units, and databases of the information gathering system 10 described above is merely one example. The arrangement of the various functional units, processing units, and databases can be changed to the optimal arrangement from the perspective of the performance, processing efficiency, and communication efficiency of the hardware and software of these devices.

[0080] Furthermore, the configuration of the database (schema, etc.) used to store the various types of data mentioned above can be flexibly modified from the perspective of efficient resource utilization, improved processing efficiency, improved access efficiency, and improved search efficiency. [Explanation of symbols]

[0081] 1. User terminal 2. Search support device 3. Failure Information System 101 Input Section 102 Current Node Identification Section 103 Specific Condition Creation Department 104 Query Creation Section 105 Search Section 106 Exclusion Condition Creation Section 107 Next Node Selection Section 108 Current Node Switching Section 109 Output section 201 Structure DB 210A, 210B, 210C Development System 211 Basic Design Node 212 Detailed Design Nodes 202 Failure Information Database 301 Input Message 302 Search Nodes 303 Specific conditions 304 Search Query 305 search results 306 Correction Patterns 307 Exclusion conditions 1001 CPU 1002 Program 1003 memory 1004 Operating device 1005 External storage device 1006 Communication IF 1007 Bus

Claims

1. A support device that connects to a system that stores past system development cases to assist in system development, A current node identification unit identifies the current node to be searched based on a basic design input from an external source, A specific condition creation unit creates conditions for determining modifications related to the identified current node, A query creation unit that creates a search query to query the aforementioned system, A search unit that passes the search query to the aforementioned system and receives the search results, An exclusion condition creation unit that identifies a correction pattern based on the search results and creates an exclusion condition to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using that correction pattern, A next node selection unit that selects the next node to be searched after the current node, A current node switching unit that sets the next node as the next current node, A support device characterized by being equipped with the following features.

2. The support device according to claim 1, wherein the specific condition creation unit creates the conditions for excluding identical keywords.

3. The support device according to claim 1, wherein the query creation unit creates a search query that does not include keywords of failure information in past cases obtained from the search results of the system.

4. The support device according to claim 1, characterized in that the next node selection unit is a breadth-first search.

5. The support device according to claim 1, wherein each node is assigned an ID (identification information), and the current node switching unit switches from the next node to the next current node using the ID.

6. The support device according to claim 1, characterized in that the past cases are failure cases.

7. The support device according to claim 6, characterized in that the correction pattern is data that includes the cause and countermeasures, corresponding to the details of the malfunction that indicate the malfunction in the malfunction case.

8. The support device according to claim 7, characterized in that the exclusion condition is data relating the keyword causing the cause to a keyword obtained by modifying the keyword.

9. The support device according to claim 1, further comprising a structural database having data relating to detailed design for each system development stored in the system.

10. The support device according to claim 1, characterized in that the identification of the specific part is performed according to the node of the system development.

11. The support device according to claim 1, further comprising an output unit connected to a user terminal and outputting a correction pattern to the user terminal.

12. The support device according to claim 11, further comprising an input unit connected to a user terminal for inputting the inputted basic design from the user terminal.

13. A support system for assisting system development, A system that stores past system development cases, A support device that assists in system development based on past examples of the aforementioned system, Equipped with, The aforementioned support device is A current node identification unit identifies the current node to be searched based on a basic design input from an external source, A specific condition creation unit creates conditions for determining modifications related to the identified current node, A query creation unit that creates a search query to query the aforementioned system, A search unit that passes the search query to the aforementioned system and receives the search results, An exclusion condition creation unit that identifies a correction pattern based on the search results and creates an exclusion condition to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using that correction pattern, A next node selection unit that selects the next node to be searched after the current node, A current node switching unit that sets the next node as the next current node, A support system characterized by having the following features.

14. A method for supporting a system that supports system development, A support method characterized by creating a search query based on conditions for identifying modifications to the current node from a basic design input from an external source, performing a search using the search query against past system development cases stored in the system's memory, identifying modification patterns based on the search results, creating exclusion conditions to avoid duplication in subsequent searches using these modification patterns, and repeating the search using the next node to be searched after the current node as the next current node.

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