Coordinated management of contracts and services particulary for telecommunications

• US 20030033162A1
• Filed: 07/05/2002
• Published: 02/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Houssiaux, Sophie, Lebourg, Isabelle, Laverriere, Anne
• Application Number:
  US10/169,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20030033162A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The management consists of constructing (S1) in object-oriented technology a service model (80) and a contract model (90); generating (S2) the service (85) and the contract (100) from the two models (80, 90) so that, at any time, a maximum number of versions, equal to at least two (85a, 85b; 100a, 100b), of each is defined; defining (S3) periods of application (88, 105) of said versions (85a, 85b; 100a, 100b); and defining (S4) statuses (89, 106) for the versions (85a, 85b; 100a, 100b), so as to determine, at any time, a coordination between a service version (85a) and a contract version (100a). This method allows for fully automatic management and ensures easy adaptation and fast and reliable continuity of the versions.

Claims

1. Method for the coordinated management of a service (85) that includes at least one technical component (86) and a technical contract (100) corresponding to the service, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

constructing (S1) in object-oriented technology a service model (80) and a contract model (90);

generating (S2) the service (85) and the contract (100) from the two models (80, 90) so that, at any time, a maximum number of versions, equal to at least two (85a, 85b;

100a, 100b), of each is defined;

defining (S3) periods of application (88, 105) of said versions (85a, 85b;

100a, 100b); and

defining (S4) statuses (89, 106) for the versions (85a, 85b;

100a, 100b), so as to determine, at any time, a coordination between a service version (85a) and a contract version (100a).

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the service (85) is defined in a class (Service) included in the class (Contract) related to the contract.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the two versions of the maximum number of versions include a current version and a dormant version, whose validity periods have a common part.

4. Method according to any of claims 1 through 3, characterized in that the service. versions (85a, 85b) and the contract versions (100a, 100b) are defined in respective classes (ServiceVersion, ContractVersion) contained in respective classes (Service, Contract) representing the service and the contract.

5. Method according to any of claims 1 through 4, characterized in that the periods of application of the versions are defined in a class (Date) common to two classes (ServiceVersion, ContractVersion) representing service and contract versions.

6. Method according to any of claims 1 through 5, characterized in that the statuses comprise a validated status (validated), determined after a verification, and a non-validated status (registered).

7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the contract is defined if the corresponding service is validated.

8. Method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the verification is related to the inclusion of the validity period of a version of the contract in that of a version of the corresponding service, so that the version of the contract is validated for said version of the service only.

9. Method according to any of claims 6 through 8, characterized in that the verification of the contract includes the verification of elements of the service that are used in the definition of the contract.

10. Method according to any of claims 1 through 9, characterized in that at least one of the statuses represents the activity status of the service (activated, monitored, suspended, terminated).

11. Method according to any of claims 1 through 10, characterized in that at least one of the statuses (monitored) relates to the monitoring of the service based on at least one criterion defined in the associated contract, such as a quality-of-service criterion (QOS).

12. Method according to any of claims 1 through 11, characterized in that the statuses are defined in a class (StatusEnum) common to two classes (Service, Contract) representing the service and the contract, and to two classes (ServiceVersion, ContractVersion) representing the corresponding versions.

13. Method according to any of claims 1 through 11, characterized in that the application periods (88, 105) and/or the statuses (89, 106) are defined during the step (S2) for generating the service (85) and the contract (100) from respective models (83, 95;

84, 96) defined during the step (S1) for constructing the corresponding models (80, 90).

14. Computer system (10) characterized in that it implements the method defined by any of the preceding claims.

15. System according to claim 14, characterized in that it constitutes a system for managing at least one resource.

16. Computer program loadable into the internal memory (15) of a computer system (10, 11), characterized in that it comprises code segments for implementing the method according to any of claims 1 through 13.

17. Computer program recording medium, characterized in that it comprises a program readable by a machine (12) of a computer system (10, 11) for controlling the execution of the method according to any of claims 1 through 13.