Mechanisms are provided for performing watched question processing. The mechanisms detect a change in content of electronic documents in a corpus of electronic documents, and retrieve a watched question from a watched question database. The mechanisms determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed when performing watched question processing in response to the detected change in content of the electronic documents in the corpus. The mechanisms bypass one or more stages of processing of the question answering pipeline in response to determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed. The mechanisms return a result of the watched question processing indicating that no changes to the previously generated answers are caused by the change in the content of the electronic documents in the corpus.
Please help me write a proper abstract based on the patent claims. CLAIM: 1. A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising instructions which are executed by the processor to cause the processor to implement the method, comprising: detecting, by the data processing system, a change in content of electronic documents in a corpus of electronic documents; retrieving, by the data processing system, a watched question from a watched question database, wherein the watched question is a question previously processed by a question answering pipeline of the data processing system and for which monitoring is performed to identify changes to previously generated answers for the watched question; determining, by the data processing system, whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed when performing watched question processing in response to the detected change in content of the electronic documents in the corpus; and in response to determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed: bypassing, by the data processing system, one or more stages of processing of the question answering pipeline; and returning, by the data processing system, a result of the watched question processing indicating that no changes to the previously generated answers are caused by the change in the content of the electronic documents in the corpus. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed comprises: obtaining first results comprising a first predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the corpus prior to the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus; obtaining second results comprising a second predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the updated corpus after the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus; comparing the first results to the second results; and determining whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed based on results of the comparison. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answer pipeline is to be bypassed in response to results of the comparison indicating that the first results are equivalent to the second results. 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first results are obtained from a results cache, where the first results are results of a prior full processing of the watched question through the question answer pipeline. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining second results comprising a second predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the updated corpus after the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus comprises obtaining the second results based on processing of only the electronic documents in the corpus whose content was changed. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining second results further comprises distinguishing changed portions of the corpus from previously existing portions of the corpus based on date filtering, and wherein determining whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed comprises determining whether the changed portions generate a change in previously generated answers to the watched question. 7. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining second results further comprises distinguishing changed portions of the corpus from previously existing portions of the corpus based on a metadata facet value associated with each of the documents in the corpus indicating whether or not a corresponding document in the corpus is a changed or new document, or a previously existing document, and wherein determining whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed comprises determining whether the changed portions generate a change in previously generated answers to the watched question. 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: performing, by the data processing system, an operation that groups watched questions having at least one similar characteristic into a watched question pool; selecting, by a data processing system, from the watched question pool, a watched question as a representative watched question of the watched question pool; and replicating a result of processing the representative watched question by the data processing system to other watched questions in the watched question pool. 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the data processing system, whether a component of the question answering pipeline has been updated; and in response to determining that a component of the question answering pipeline has been updated, marking, by the data processing system, all watched questions in the watched question database as requiring full processing through the question answering pipeline. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is not to be bypassed, performing full processing of the watched question through all stages of the question answering pipeline to generate one or more new answers to the watched question based on the updated corpus. 11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to: detect a change in content of electronic documents in a corpus of electronic documents; retrieve a watched question from a watched question database, wherein the watched question is a question previously processed by a question answering pipeline of the data processing system and for which monitoring is performed to identify changes to previously generated answers for the watched question; determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed when performing watched question processing in response to the detected change in content of the electronic documents in the corpus; and in response to determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed: bypass one or more stages of processing of the question answering pipeline; and return a result of the watched question processing indicating that no changes to the previously generated answers are caused by the change in the content of the electronic documents in the corpus. 12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed at least by: obtaining first results comprising a first predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the corpus prior to the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus; obtaining second results comprising a second predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the updated corpus after the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus; comparing the first results to the second results; and determining whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed based on results of the comparison. 13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to determine that full processing of the watched question through the question answer pipeline is to be bypassed in response to results of the comparison indicating that the first results are equivalent to the second results. 14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the first results are obtained from a results cache, where the first results are results of a prior full processing of the watched question through the question answer pipeline. 15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to obtain second results comprising a second predetermined number of highest ranked documents returned by a primary search of the updated corpus after the change in content of electronic documents in the corpus at least by obtaining the second results based on processing of only the electronic documents in the corpus whose content was changed. 16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to obtain second results at least by distinguishing changed portions of the corpus from previously existing portions of the corpus based on date filtering, and wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed at least by determining whether the changed portions generate a change in previously generated answers to the watched question. 17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to obtain second results at least by distinguishing changed portions of the corpus from previously existing portions of the corpus based on a metadata facet value associated with each of the documents in the corpus indicating whether or not a corresponding document in the corpus is a changed or new document, or a previously existing document, and wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed at least by determining whether the changed portions generate a change in previously generated answers to the watched question. 18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to: perform an operation that groups watched questions having at least one similar characteristic into a watched question pool; select, from the watched question pool, a watched question as a representative watched question of the watched question pool; and replicate a result of processing the representative watched question by the data processing system to other watched questions in the watched question pool. 19. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to: determine whether a component of the question answering pipeline has been updated; and in response to determining that a component of the question answering pipeline has been updated, mark all watched questions as requiring full processing through the question answering pipeline. 20. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: detect a change in content of electronic documents in a corpus of electronic documents; retrieve a watched question from a watched question database, wherein the watched question is a question previously processed by a question answering pipeline of the data processing system and for which monitoring is performed to identify changes to previously generated answers for the watched question; determine whether full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed when performing watched question processing in response to the detected change in content of the electronic documents in the corpus; and in response to determining that full processing of the watched question through the question answering pipeline is to be bypassed: bypass one or more stages of processing of the question answering pipeline; and return a result of the watched question processing indicating that no changes to the previously generated answers are caused by the change in the content of the electronic documents in the corpus.