Rule-Based Work-Item Prioritization With Contribution-Expense Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current software development tools struggle to associate computerized work-items with organizational objectives, prioritize them effectively, and measure progress against desired outcomes due to the lack of granular contribution and expense decomposition, and they do not consider different resource categories or minimize resource usage.
Innovation Solution
A system and method to generate a prioritized list of computerized work-items using prioritized computer-executable rules, which includes determining contribution and expense sub-components, resource categories, and resource limits, and sorting work-items based on these rules to ensure resource constraints are met while maximizing contribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If computerized work-items are prioritized using traditional methods (priority, size, available resources), then work-item selection can be made, but the prioritization is ad hoc and does not effectively associate work-items with organizational objectives
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments work-items into contribution sub-components (features, defects, technical debt) and expense sub-components (time, resources), allowing granular tracking and association with organizational objectives. This segmentation enables precise measurement of how each work-item contributes to or consumes organizational resources, resolving the ad hoc nature of traditional prioritization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces new parameters for prioritization including contribution metrics, expense metrics, and objective weights. By changing the prioritization parameters from simple priority/size to multi-dimensional contribution-expense analysis, the system achieves effective alignment with organizational objectives while maintaining computational efficiency through automated scoring.
2Measurement precision
If progress is measured by tracking outputs (features shipped, defects resolved, story points completed), then progress can be quantified, but there is no connection to desired organizational outcomes such as increase in revenue or product adoption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms that track contribution sub-components and expense sub-components throughout the work-item lifecycle. By continuously measuring and reporting on how work-items contribute to organizational objectives and consume resources, the system maintains precise progress measurement while preserving the connection to desired outcomes through objective-based tracking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal tracking framework that can measure both traditional outputs (features, defects, story points) and organizational outcomes (revenue, product adoption, customer satisfaction) within a single system. This multi-functional measurement approach eliminates the disconnect between progress tracking and organizational goals by unifying both metrics in the contribution-expense model.
3Measurement precision
If the number of computerized work-items with multiple contribution and expense sub-components increases, then comprehensive tracking is achieved, but the computational challenge for creating prioritized lists increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the complex multi-dimensional prioritization problem into a computationally manageable form by parameterizing contribution and expense sub-components with standardized metrics and weights. This parameterization allows the system to handle comprehensive tracking of multiple work-item attributes while maintaining computational efficiency through consistent calculation frameworks and automated scoring algorithms.
4Productivity
If traditional WSJF method is used to optimize work-items based on cost of delay divided by job duration, then some prioritization is achieved, but there is no decomposition of contributions and expenses into sub-components or clear distinction between them
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the WSJF methodology into distinct contribution sub-components (user business value, time criticality, risk reduction) and expense sub-components (job duration, resource requirements). This segmentation provides clear decomposition and distinction between what work-items contribute and what they consume, while maintaining the computational efficiency of WSJF-based prioritization through structured scoring.
Data Source
AI summary
Generating an output prioritized list of computerized work-items for prioritizing work based on a set of prioritized computer-executable rules includes a structured way of associating contributions and expenses with computerized work-items and enhancing current technological processes of selecting computerized work-items to meet prioritized computer-executable rules. The method includes determining an electronic priority order of each of contribution sub-components and expense sub-components based on prioritized computer-executable rules, generating a tuple having contribution sub-components and expense sub-components for each of the computerized work-items, sorting the computerized work-items of the input master list in descending order of the contribution and expense sub-component tuples to obtain a sorted list of computerized work-items, and traversing the sorted list of computerized work-items to generate the output prioritized list of computerized work-items for prioritizing work based on prioritized computer-executable rules.