Method, program and apparatus for supporting inter-disciplinary workflow with dynamic artifacts

A programmable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations supporting collaborative product development, the operations comprising:

• maintaining under revision control, in a first repository, a plurality of artifacts;
• maintaining under revision control, in another repository, a plurality of artifact tuples, at least one first artifact tuple comprising first access information providing access to at least one of said plurality of artifacts, and at least one second artifact tuple comprising second access information providing access to at least one other of said plurality of artifact tuples;
• maintaining under revision control, at least one workflow activity description;
• and
• maintaining under revision control, at least one artifact configuration selection rule;
• associating said workflow activity description with at least one of said plurality of artifact tuples;
• and
• associating said workflow activity description with at least one said artifact configuration selection rules.

An apparatus for supporting collaborative product development, comprising:

• a plurality of repositories;
• and
• means for maintaining, under revision control, a plurality of artifacts, a plurality of artifact tuples, at least one workflow activity description, and at least one artifact configuration selection rule, and for maintaining an association between said at least one workflow activity description with access information contained in at least one of said plurality of artifact tuples and with said at least one artifact configuration selection rule,
• wherein said plurality of artifacts, said plurality of artifact tuples, said at least one workflow activity description, and said at least one artifact configuration selection rule are maintained in said plurality of repositories, and
• wherein at least one first artifact tuple comprising first access information provides access to at least one of said plurality of artifacts, and at least one second artifact tuple comprising second access information provides access to at least one other of said plurality of artifact tuples.