Assisted free form decision definition using rules vocabulary

• US 10,296,585 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2013
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Peter John, Clark, Duncan George, Backhouse, Christopher Paul, Locke, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Tzeng, Feng-Tzer
• Application Number:
  US13/921,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339003A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,162 Days
• Field of Search: 704 9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A computer program product of decision definition using a rules vocabulary includes program code for: receiving free form input; identifying terms contained within the free form input; searching the rules vocabulary objects for terms; responsive to the term being found, obtaining input from a user as to whether to use the found term; responsive to the term not being found; searching the rules vocabulary attributes for terms having attributes corresponding to the term; responsive to the term being found, obtaining input from a user as to whether to use the found term; and refactoring the free form input with the found term accepted by the user. The program code also includes code for updating the rules vocabulary with the term identified in the free form input as a synonym for the term found in said rules vocabulary. One embodiment further provides determining semantic equivalence between a plurality of rules using a rules database having preferred terms.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having computer program code embodied therein that when executed by a processor of a data processing system having a memory that includes a plurality of applications, causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

receiving, via at least one input device of the data processing system, at least one rule to be enforced, within the data processing system, wherein each of the at least one rule is received as a free form sentence in natural language;

identifying a first term from among one or more terms contained within the at least one rule;

searching in a rules vocabulary for a term corresponding to the first term, wherein the rules vocabulary is stored within a storage device that is communicatively interconnected with the processor; and

in response to the term being found;

presenting, on an output device of the data processing system;

(1) the found corresponding term as a candidate to replace the first term in each of the at least one rule and (2) at least one found attribute that is associated with the found corresponding term within the rules vocabulary, wherein the at least one found attribute includes at least one reference that describes a relationship with the found corresponding term;

receiving, via the at least one input device, a first input identifying whether to replace the first term with the found corresponding term within the at least one rule;

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is to replace the first term;

refactoring each of the at least one rule by replacing the first term with the found corresponding term;

implementing a policy within the data processing system using the refactored at least one rule as a replacement of the at least one rule, wherein the policy is a global policy that is implemented within at least one of;

the plurality of applications of the data processing system and contexts of a broad data processing system that includes the data processing system, and wherein the policy designates a particular course of action of the data processing system;

presenting, on an output device of the data processing system, an inquiry that includes a first option for adding the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term and a second option for declining the addition of the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term;

receiving, via the at least one input device, a response to the inquiry that includes a selected option from among the first option and the second option; and

in response to determining the response to the inquiry indicating a selected option that is the first option, adding the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term; and

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is not to be used, searching the rules vocabulary for other terms having attributes corresponding to the at least one found attribute.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further comprising code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of updating the rules vocabulary with the first term.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further comprising code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

in response to the term being found;

receiving, via the at least one input device, an input that indicates whether the found term is to be added to the rules vocabulary; and

in response to the input indicating that the found term is to be added to the rules vocabulary, updating the rules vocabulary with the first term as a synonym for the found term.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

determining semantic equivalence between a plurality of rules in a rules database using the rules vocabulary by;

identifying at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule;

determining, for each of the at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule, whether there exists in the rules vocabulary a synonym term that is identified as a preferred term; and

in response to identifying a preferred term for at least one of the objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule, replacing each of the at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships or verbs in each of the plurality of rules with the preferred term to form a plurality of amended rules.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further comprising code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

analyzing the at least one rule to identify at least one attribute within the at least one rule that corresponds to the first term, wherein the at least one attribute comprises at least one of;

a value that describes the first term and a relationship associated with the first term;

in response to the term not being found;

searching the rules vocabulary for the at least one attribute;

in response to finding the at least one attribute in the rules vocabulary;

identifying, within the rules vocabulary, at least one other term that is associated with the at least one attribute;

presenting, on an output device of the data processing system, the at least one other term as a candidate to replace the first term;

in response to presenting the at least one term as a candidate to replace the first term, receiving, via the at least one input device, a first response that indicates whether the at least one other term is accepted and is to be used to replace the first term in the at least one rule; and

in response to determining the first response indicates that the at least one other term has been accepted and is to be used;

presenting, on an output device of the data processing system, a request that includes a first option for adding the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term and a second option for declining the addition of the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term;

receiving, via the at least one input device, a second response that includes a selected option from among the first option and the second option;

in response to determining the selected option is the first option, adding the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term;

refactoring each of the at least one rule by replacing the first term with the at least one other term; and

implementing a new policy within data processing system using the refactored at least one rule, wherein the new policy designates a particular course of action of the data processing system.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the at least one other term is a synonym for the term.

12. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the comparison is an absolute comparison.

14. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein comparing the first amended rule and the second amended rule further comprises:

disregarding, between the first amended rule and the second amended rule, one or more differences of a specified type that do not affect a meaning of the first amended rule and the second amended rule; and

wherein;

the at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships or verbs includes at least one verb; and

the preferred term is a verb.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein:

the code for presenting the at least one other term as a candidate to replace the first term further comprises code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of;

presenting, on the output device, a first candidate term and at least one second candidate term as candidate terms to replace the first term, wherein only one term from among the first candidate term and the at least one second candidate term may be selected to replace the first term; and

the code for receiving the response further comprises code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of;

receiving a selected replacement term from among the first candidate term and the at least one second candidate term that is accepted and is to be used to replace the first term in the free form input, wherein the at least one other term is the selected replacement term.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further comprising code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is not to be used to replace the first term, searching the rules vocabulary for at least one synonym of at least one attribute within the at least one rule that corresponds to the first term; and

in response to finding, in the rules vocabulary, at least one synonym of the at least one attribute, presenting, on the output device of the data processing system, the at least one synonym as the candidate to replace the first term.

18. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein an attribute defines, for a corresponding term, at least one of:

a value that is associated with the corresponding term;

a relational concept associated with the corresponding term; and

a synonym of the corresponding term.

20. The computer program product of claim 1, the computer program code further comprising code that causes the data processing system to perform the processes of:

comparing a first amended rule to others of the plurality of amended rules for equivalence;

in response to the comparison indicating that the first amended rule and a second amended rule from among the plurality of amended rules are equivalent;

identifying the first amended rule and the second amended rule as being equivalent; and

configuring the rules database to refactor any future rules that are identified as equivalent to the first and second amended rules to utilize the preferred terms in the first and second amended rules; and

replacing one or more generalized terms in the at least one rule with one or more semantically equivalent terms.

5. A system for decision definition, the system comprising:

a memory including a plurality of applications; and

a storage device having a rules vocabulary containing preferred terms for objects and for attributes, a local vocabulary, and at least one rule expressed in a free form input, wherein the free form input is a sentence in natural language and is received via at least one input device of the system, and wherein the free form input comprises one or more terms; and

a processor that is communicatively interconnected with the storage device and which executes instructions that configure the system to;

receive, via the at least one input device of the system, at least one rule to be enforced within system, wherein each of the at least one rule is received as a free form input sentence in natural language;

identify a first term from among one or more terms contained within the at least one rule;

search objects in the rules vocabulary for a term corresponding to the first term of the one or more terms; and

in response to the term being found;

presenting, on an output device of the data processing system;

(1) the found corresponding term as a candidate to replace the first term in each of the at least one rule and (2) at least one found attribute that is associated with the found corresponding term within the rules vocabulary, wherein the at least one found attribute includes at least one reference that describes a relationship with the found corresponding term;

receive, via the at least one input device, a first input identifying whether to replace the first term with the found corresponding term within the at least one rule;

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is to be replace the first term;

refactor each of the at least one rule by replacing the first term with the found corresponding term;

implement a policy within the system using the refactored at least one rule as a replacement of the at least one rule, wherein the policy is a global policy that is implemented across the plurality of applications of the data processing system and contexts of a broad data processing system that includes the data processing system, and wherein the policy designates a particular course of action of the system;

present, on an output device of the data processing system, an inquiry that includes a first option for adding the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term and a second option for declining the addition of the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term;

receive, via the at least one input device, a response to the inquiry that includes a selected option from among the first option and the second option; and

in response to determining the response to the inquiry indicating a selected option that is the first option, adding the found corresponding term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term; and

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is not to be used, search the rules vocabulary for other terms having attributes corresponding to the at least one found attribute.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the processor executes instructions that cause the system to;

in response to the term being found;

receive, via the at least one input device, an input that indicates whether the found term is to be added to the rules vocabulary; and

in response to the input indicating that the found term is to be added to the rules vocabulary, update the rules vocabulary with the first term as a synonym for the found term found; and

the rules vocabulary is a local subset of a global vocabulary.

7. The system of claim 5, the instructions further comprising instructions that when executed by the processor cause the system to:

determine semantic equivalence between a plurality of rules in a rules database using the rules vocabulary by;

identifying at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule;

determining, for each of the at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule, whether there exists in the rules vocabulary a synonym term that is identified as a preferred term; and

in response to identifying a preferred term for at least one of the objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs in each of the at least one rule, replacing each of the at least one of objects, attributes, values, relationships or verbs in each of the plurality of rules with a corresponding preferred term to form a plurality of amended rules.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor executes instructions that cause the system to:

analyze the at least one rule to identify at least one attribute within the at least one rule that corresponds to the first term, wherein the at least one attribute comprises at least one of;

a value that describes the first term and a relationship associated with the first term;

in response to the term corresponding to the first term not being found;

search the rules vocabulary for the at least one attribute;

in response to finding the at least one attribute in the rules vocabulary;

identifying, within the rules vocabulary, at least one other term that is associated with the at least one attribute;

present, on an output device of the system, the at least one other term as a candidate to replace the term;

in response to presenting the at least one other term as a candidate to replace the first term, receiving, via the at least one input device, a first response that indicates whether the at least one other term is accepted and is to be used to replace the first term in the at least one rule; and

in response to determining the received first response indicates an acceptance of the at least one other term;

present, on an output device of the system, a request that includes a first option for adding the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term and a second option for declining the addition of the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term;

receive, via the at least one input device, a second response that includes a selected option from among the first option and the second option;

in response to determining the selected option is the first option, add the at least one other term to the rules vocabulary as a synonym for the first term; and

refactor the at least one rule using the at least one other term to replace the first term and implement a new policy using the refactored at least one rule, wherein the new policy designates a particular course of action of the system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the one or more terms are one or more of objects, attributes, values, relationships, and verbs; and

the processor executes instructions that cause the system to update the rules vocabulary with the first term.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the comparison is an absolute comparison.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein:

in presenting the at least one other term on the output device, the processor presents a first candidate term and at least one second candidate term as candidate terms to replace the first term, wherein only one term from among the first candidate term and the at least one second candidate term may be selected to replace the first term; and

in receiving the response, the processor receives a selected replacement term from among the first candidate term and the at least one second candidate term that is accepted and is to be used to replace the first term in the free form input, wherein the at least one other term is the selected replacement term.

19. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor executes instructions that cause the system to:

in response to the first input indicating the found corresponding term is not to be used to replace the first term, search the rules vocabulary for at least one synonym of at least one attribute within the at least one rule that corresponds to the first term; and

in response to finding, in the rules vocabulary, at least one synonym of the at least one attribute, presenting, on the output device, the at least one synonym as the candidate to replace the first term.

21. The system of claim 7, the instructions further comprising instructions that when executed by the processor cause the system to:

compare a first amended rule to others of the plurality of amended rules for equivalence; and

in response to the comparison indicating that the first amended rule and a second amended rule from among the plurality amended of rules are equivalent;

identify the first amended rule and the second amended rule as being equivalent; and

configure the rules database to refactor any future rules that are identified as equivalent to the first and second amended rules to utilize the preferred terms in the first and second amended rules;

replace one or more generalized terms in the free form input with one or more semantically equivalent terms; and

disregard, between the first amended rule and the second amended rule, one or more differences of a specified type that do not affect a meaning of the first amended rule and the second amended rule.