Collaborative environment to assess, design, and implement product changes

An article comprising a tangible machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprising:

• providing access to an engineering change case to a plurality of users via one or more computer networks;
• receiving first user-generated input identifying a problem for a product and initiating an engineering change case;
• receiving second user-generated input associating the problem for the product with a historical engineering change case, the historical engineering change case including a plurality of hierarchical folders, the hierarchical folders including structure items defining a structure of the hierarchical folder and allowing user-generated content and attributes to be added to the hierarchical folder;
• receiving a plurality of user-generated input until required tasks associated with each required hierarchical folder is indicated as being complete, wherein a first subset of the tasks can only be completed after a second subset of the tasks have been completed;
• and
• finalizing generation of the engineering case when an indication is received that all the required tasks have been completed.

An article comprising a tangible machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprising:

• initiating a product lifecycle management case, the product lifecycle management comprising a plurality of structured folders that can be populated with content for assessing, designing, and implementing a product, the folders each being assignable to one or more users and having associated deliverables for such users, the product lifecycle management case providing a single source of information relating to the assessment, design, and implementation of the product;
• receiving input from at least a subset of the users populating the folders with content associated with the deliverables, at least a portion of the deliverables being delegable and requiring completion in a sequential order;
• and
• finalizing generation of the product lifecycle management case when an indication is received that all deliverables requiring approval have been completed, otherwise, canceling the product lifecycle management case.