Cost of change for adjusting long running order management fulfillment processes for a distributed order orchestration system

• US 10,395,205 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2010
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Addala, Raju, Singh, Alok, Reed, Leah, Butt, Zeeshan, Sridharan, Sarita, Datti, Sunita
• Primary Examiner(s): Delich, Stephanie Z
• Application Number:
  US12/718,475
• Publication Number:
  US 20110218922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,462 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, and system are provided. In one embodiment, a business process is created, and a cost of change value for the business process is defined. An executable process that is generated from the business process is executed, and a change request is received. It is determined whether the cost of change value is greater than a threshold value, and, when the cost of change value is not greater than the threshold value, the change request is initiated.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to provide a distributed order orchestration system, the providing comprising:

creating a business rule that controls an operation of an executable orchestration process based on runtime data, the executable orchestration process comprising steps that orchestrate an order;

when a rule set does not already exist, creating a rule set that includes one or more business rules;

adding the business rule to the rule set;

adding the rule set to a rule dictionary associated with the executable orchestration process, the rule dictionary comprising a library of one or more rule sets;

storing the rule dictionary in a process definition table of a database;

receiving an order;

decomposing the order into a plurality of services for fulfilling the order;

receiving, at an orchestration system, metadata encapsulating one or more instructions for creating a business process, the business process comprising a plurality of steps, and each step is associated with one of the services;

defining a cost of change value for each of the steps of the business process, wherein the cost of change value represents a cost required to adjust the associated step of the business process;

executing an executable orchestration process that is generated from the business process, wherein the executable orchestration process orchestrates the order by dynamically invoking one or more services stored within a service library configured to control task execution of an external fulfillment system, wherein each of the steps is associated with at least one of the services;

receiving, at the orchestration system, a change request from a client device, wherein the change request comprises an adjustment of at least one step of the business process;

applying a rule set of the rule dictionary to the change request of the executable orchestration process by invoking one or more business rules in the rule set to determine whether the cost of change value is greater than an upper threshold value;

when the cost of change value is not greater than the upper threshold value, initiating the change request and automatically adjusting the steps of the executable orchestration process that have already been executed; and

when the cost of change value is greater than the upper threshold value, not initiating the change request.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the defining and applying further comprising:

defining a cost of change value for at least one of an order line, a transaction attribute, and a field of line item.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the metadata defines a sequence in which the services are to be invoked and defines conditional or parallel branching for processing the order.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, further comprising:

generating a user interface that allows a user to provide the metadata;

wherein the rule dictionary is saved as a character large object (CLOB) in the database.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the defining and applying further comprising defining a cost of change type, wherein the cost of change type comprises one or more cost of change values.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the defining a cost of change value for the step further comprises selecting the cost of change value from the one or more cost of change values defined for the cost of change type.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more business rules in the rule set are invoked as an inline JAVA programming language library, each business rule including a version number.

8. A computer-implemented method for configuring for a distributed order orchestration system, the computer-implemented method comprising:

creating a business rule that controls an operation of an executable orchestration process based on runtime data, the executable orchestration process comprising steps that orchestrate an order;

when a rule set does not already exist, creating a rule set that includes one or more business rules;

adding the business rule to the rule set;

adding the rule set to a rule dictionary associated with the executable orchestration process, the rule dictionary comprising a library of one or more rule sets;

storing the rule dictionary in a process definition table of a database;

receiving an order;

decomposing the order into a plurality of services for fulfilling the order;

receiving, at an orchestration system, metadata encapsulating one or more instructions for creating a business process, the business process comprising a plurality of steps, and each step is associated with one of the services;

defining a cost of change value for each of the steps of the business process, wherein the cost of change value represents a cost required to adjust the associated step of the business process;

executing an executable orchestration process that is generated from the business process, wherein the executable orchestration process orchestrates the order by dynamically invoking one or more services stored within a service library configured to control task execution of an external fulfillment system, wherein each of the steps is associated with at least one of the services;

receiving, at the orchestration system, a change request from a client device, wherein the change request comprises an adjustment of at least one step of the business process;

applying a rule set of the rule dictionary to the change request of the executable orchestration process by invoking one or more business rules in the rule set to determine whether the cost of change value is greater than an upper threshold value;

when the cost of change value is not greater than the upper threshold value, initiating the change request and automatically adjusting the steps of the executable orchestration process that have already been executed; and

when the cost of change value is greater than the upper threshold value, not initiating the change request.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

defining a cost of change value for at least one of an order line, a transaction attribute, and a field of line item.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8,

wherein the metadata defines a sequence in which the services are to be invoked and defines conditional or parallel branching for processing the order.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a user interface that allows a user to provide the metadata;

wherein the rule dictionary is saved as a character large object (CLOB) in the database.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising defining a cost of change type, wherein the cost of change type comprises one or more cost of change values.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the defining a cost of change value for the step further comprises selecting the cost of change value from the one or more cost of change values defined for the cost of change type.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the one or more business rules in the rule set are invoked as an inline JAVA programming language library, each business rule including a version number.

15. A distributed order orchestration system, comprising:

one or more processors that execute instructions to implement

an order capture module and

an orchestration module;

wherein the order capture module is configured to create a business rule that controls an operation of an executable orchestration process based on runtime data, the executable orchestration process comprising steps that orchestrate an order, when a rule set does not already exist, create a rule set that includes one or more business rules, add the business rule to the rule set, add the rule set to a rule dictionary associated with the executable orchestration process, the rule dictionary comprising a library of one or more rule sets, and storing the rule dictionary in a process definition table of a database;

wherein the order capture module is configured to, at the orchestration system, receive an order and decompose the order into a plurality of services for fulfilling the order, and receive metadata encapsulating one or more instructions to create a business process, the business process comprising a plurality of steps, and each step is associated with one of the services,

wherein the order capture module is further configured to define a cost of change value for each of the steps of the business process, wherein the cost of change value represents a cost required to adjust the associated step of business process,

wherein the orchestration module is configured to execute an executable orchestration process that is generated from the business process, wherein the executable orchestration process orchestrates the order by dynamically invoking one or more services stored within a service library configured to control task execution of an external fulfillment system, wherein each of the steps is associated with at least one of the services,

wherein the order capture module is further configured to receive a change request from a client device, wherein the change request comprises an adjustment of at least one step of the business process,

wherein the order capture module is further configured to apply a rule set of the rule dictionary to the change request of the executable orchestration process by invoking one or more business rules in the rule set to determine whether the cost of change value is greater than an upper threshold value,

wherein, when the cost of change value is not greater than the upper threshold value, the order capture module is further configured to initiate the change request and automatically adjust the steps of the executable orchestration process that have already been executed; and

when the cost of change value is greater than the upper threshold value, the order capture module is further configured to not initiate the change request.

16. The distributed order orchestration system of claim 15, wherein the order capture module is further configured to define a cost of change value for at least one of an order line, a transaction attribute, and a field of line item.

17. The distributed order orchestration system of claim 15,

wherein the metadata defines a sequence in which the services are to be invoked and defines conditional or parallel branching for processing the order.

18. The distributed orchestration system of claim 15, wherein the order capture module is further configured to define a cost of change type, wherein the cost of change type comprises one or more cost of change values.

19. The distributed orchestration system of claim 18, wherein the order capture module is further configured to select the cost of change value from the one or more cost of change values defined for the cost of change type.

20. The distributed orchestration system of claim 15, wherein the order capture module is further configured to select a business rule to calculate the cost of change value based on runtime data.