Ensuring resilience of a business function by managing resource availability of a mission-critical project

• US 10,176,453 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2018
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kenkre, Sreyash D., Mehta, Sameep, Narayanam, Krishnasuri, Pandit, Vinayaka D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US15/860,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20180130014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 370 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and associated systems for ensuring resilience of a business function manages resource availability for projects that perform mission-critical tasks for the business function. The method and systems create a model that reveals dependencies among types of resources needed by a project, such that the model describes how the unavailability of one instance of a resource propagates disruptions to other instances of the same type of resource. This model automatically identifies a resource type as being critical if a disruption of an instance of the resource type would render a project task infeasible, and if restoring that task would incur unacceptable cost. The model may also automatically identify a first resource type as being critical for a second resource type when disruption of the first resource type reduces the available capacity of the second resource type to an unacceptable level.

Claims

1. A method for ensuring resilience of a business function, the method comprising:

a processor of a computerized business-continuity planning system, comprising software running on a computer system, setting an initial value of a total available capacity of a first resource equal to a sum of a first available amount, a second available amount, and a third available amount,

where the first available amount is an available amount of a first instance of the first resource,

where the second available amount is an available amount of a second instance of the first resource,

where the third available amount is an available amount of a third instance of the first resource,

where the business function is supported in a critical manner by a planned project,

where identifying, and reducing disruptions capable of threatening the availability of resources required by the planned project improves the resiliency of the business function, and

where the planned project requires the first, second, and third available amounts, respectively, of the first, second, and third instances;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance would cause a second disruption of the second instance, and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that a disruption of either the first instance or the second instance would cause a third disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption results in;

a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount, and

a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount;

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource,

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting, and

where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.

4. The method of claim 1, where all or part of the set of dependency relationships is represented by a graph that represents a pair of instances of the set of instances of the first resource as a pair of nodes, and further represents a dependency relationship between the pair of instances as a directed path between the pair of nodes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable program code in the computer system, where the computer-readable program code in combination with the computer system is configured to implement the setting, the receiving, the determining, and the decreasing.

6. A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having a computer-readable program code stored therein, the program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computerized business-continuity planning system to implement a method for ensuring resilience of a business function, the method comprising:

the processor setting an initial value of a total available capacity of a first resource equal to a sum of a first available amount, a second available amount, and a third available amount,

where the first available amount is an available amount of a first instance of the first resource,

where the second available amount is an available amount of a second instance of the first resource,

where the third available amount is an available amount of a third instance of the first resource,

where the business function is supported in a critical manner by a planned project,

where identifying and reducing disruptions capable of threatening the availability of resources required by the planned project improves the resiliency of the business function, and

where the planned project requires the first, second, and third available amounts, respectively, of the first, second, and third instances;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance would cause a second disruption of the second instance; and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that a disruption of either the first instance or the second instance would cause a third disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption results in;

a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount, and

a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount;

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and d the third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource, and

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting, and

where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.

9. A computerized business-continuity planning system comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a computer-readable hardware storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device containing program code configured to be run by the processor via the memory to implement a method for ensuring resilience of a business function, the method comprising:

the processor setting an initial value of a total available capacity of a first resource equal to a sum of a first available amount, a second available amount, and a third available amount,

where the first available amount is an available amount of a first instance of the first resource,

where the second available amount is an available amount of a second instance of the first resource,

where the third available amount is an available amount of a third instance of the first resource,

where the business function is supported in a critical manner by a planned project,

where identifying and reducing disruptions capable of threatening the availability of resources required by the planned project improves the resiliency of the business function, and

where the planned project requires the first, second, and third available amounts, respectively, of the first, second, and third instances;

the processor receiving a set of dependency relationships,

where a first dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance would cause a second disruption of the second instance, and

where a second dependency relationship of the set of dependency relationships identifies that a disruption of either the first instance or the second instance would cause a third disruption of the third instance;

the processor determining that the initial disruption results in;

a reduction of the first available amount by a first-instance reduction amount,

a reduction of the second available amount by a second-instance reduction amount, and

a reduction of the third available amount by a third-instance reduction amount;

the processor, as a result of the determining, decreasing the total available capacity of the first resource by a sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount; and

the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if a resumption cost exceeds a resumption-cost threshold value, where the resumption cost is a cost to resume the project after the project has been rendered impossible to complete due to the decreasing,

where the resumption cost comprises at least one of a substitution cost and a time-delay cost,

where the substitution cost is a function of a cost of substituting an available amount of a second resource to compensate for the reduction of the first, second, and third available amounts of the first resource,

where the second resource is distinct from the first resource, and

where the time-delay cost is a function of a duration of time required to perform the substituting, and

where the time-delay cost is a further function of a distance between a first geographic location of an instance of the first resource that is still available to the project and a second geographic location of an instance of the second resource that is available to the project.

10. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising the processor characterizing the first resource as being critical if the decreased total available capacity is less than a capacity threshold value.

11. The computer system of claim 9, where the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule that specifies an amount of the second resource required to compensate for the decrease in the total available capacity of the first resource.