Method and apparatus for assessing sourced elements

1. A computer readable medium storing a software program, that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for assessing an available version of a sourced element, comprising:

(a) obtaining a description of the available version of the sourced element;

(b) identifying a plurality of evaluation items for the available version of the sourced element by evaluating the description using at least one evaluation category comprising a plurality of evaluation parameters; and

(c) determining an overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element using the identified evaluation items, wherein the overall assessment is indicative of a value of the available version of the sourced element

wherein the step of identifying the plurality of evaluation items for the sourced element further comprises:

selecting the at least one evaluation category;

identifying the evaluation parameters for each selected evaluation category; and

processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters to identify the evaluation items for each selected evaluation category.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a current version of the sourced element;

determining the available version of the sourced element; and

determining whether the available and current versions of the sourced element are different.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the description of the available version of the sourced element comprises at least one of a release notes file, a change log file, a readme file, a bug-fix list file, and an error report file.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of evaluation items for the sourced element comprises:

selecting the at least one evaluation category;

for each selected evaluation category, identifying the evaluation parameters; and

for each selected evaluation category, processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters to identify the evaluation items.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, for each selected evaluation category, processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters comprises:

searching the description using the each of the evaluation parameters, wherein the evaluation parameters comprise keywords; and

identifying the evaluation items in response to detecting keyword matches in the description.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element comprises:

identifying assessment information; and

processing the evaluation items using the assessment information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein processing the evaluation items using the assessment information comprises:

prioritizing the evaluation items according to the assessment information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one evaluation category comprises at least one of a security category, a reliability category, a stability category, a performance category, and a compatibility category.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying at least one other available version of the sourced element; and

repeating steps (a) through (c) for each of the at least one other available version of the sourced element.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

repeating steps (a) through (c) for each of a plurality of other sourced elements.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

prioritizing the available versions of the sourced elements using the respective overall assessments of the available versions of the sourced elements to form thereby a prioritized list of the available versions of the sourced elements.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

selecting one of the available versions of the sourced elements from the prioritized list of the available versions of the sourced elements; and

upgrading the sourced element from a current version of the sourced element to the available version of the sourced element.

13. An apparatus for determining whether to upgrade a sourced element from a current version to an available version, comprising:

means for obtaining a description of the available version of the sourced element;

means for identifying a plurality of evaluation items for the available version of the sourced element by evaluating the description using at least one evaluation category comprising a plurality of evaluation parameters; and

means for determining an overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element using the identified evaluation items, wherein the overall assessment is indicative of a value of the available version of the sourced element;

wherein the means for identifying the plurality of evaluation items for the sourced element further comprises:

means for selecting the at least one evaluation category;

means for, for each selected evaluation category, identifying the evaluation parameters; and

means for, for each selected evaluation category, processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters to identify the evaluation items.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising:

means for determining a current version of the sourced element;

means for determining the available version of the sourced element; and

means for determining whether the available and current versions of the sourced element are different.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the description of the available version of the sourced element comprises at least one of a release notes file, a change log file, a readme file, a bug-fix list file, and an error report file.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the means for processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters comprises:

means for searching the description using the each of the evaluation parameters, wherein the evaluation parameters comprise keywords; and

means for identifying the evaluation items in response to detecting keyword matches in the description.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the means for determining the overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element comprises:

means for identifying assessment information; and

means for processing the evaluation items using the assessment information.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the means for processing the evaluation items using the assessment information comprises:

means for prioritizing the evaluation items according to the assessment information.

19. A computer readable medium storing a software program, that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method comprising:

(a) obtaining a description of the available version of the sourced element;

(b) identifying a plurality of evaluation items for the available version of the sourced element by evaluating the description using at least one evaluation category comprising a plurality of evaluation parameters wherein the identification step further comprises:

selecting the at least one evaluation category;

identifying the evaluation parameters for each selected evaluation category; and

processing the description using the associated evaluation parameters to identify the evaluation items for each selected evaluation category; and

(c) determining an overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element using the identified evaluation items, wherein the overall assessment is indicative of a value of the available version of the sourced element.