Checks for product knowledge management

• US 20040078727A1
• Filed: 12/13/2002
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bingham, Paris E. Jr., Martin, Rex G., Treece, Alan J., Helgren, Matthew J., Little, Mike E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,100,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2257 using expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/00 Computing arrangements using knowledge-based models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

A check for a knowledge automation engine to use in detecting product issues on products. A knowledge automation engine may evaluate a check against a fact to detect a product issue on a product and provide a user of the product remediation information. A check may contain a product issue description, a rule to evaluate against a fact in order to detect the product issue, and remediation information to help a user address the product issue if the product issue is detected on the product. Product issues may include product installation validation and known product bugs. Facts used by the knowledge automation engine may include product configuration facts.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a knowledge repository configured to store product knowledge for a plurality of products, wherein the product knowledge comprises one or more checks, wherein each check comprises;

a description section, wherein the description section comprises text describing a product issue detectable by the check;

a rule section, wherein the rule section comprises a rule formatted according to rule language to use to evaluate with one or more product facts to detect the product issue;

a remediation section, wherein the remediation section comprises information to address the product issue detectable by the check; and

an interface to access the one or more checks in the knowledge repository, wherein the interface is configured to allow a user to search the one or more checks and evaluate the one or more checks to detect a product issue.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the text describing the product issue detectable by the check is searchable by a user to locate a set of relevant checks to send to a knowledge automation engine to detect an issue on the user'"'"'s product.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the rule section comprises an applicability rule formatted according to rule language to use to evaluate whether the check is related to relevant product characteristics.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein the rule section further comprises a condition rule executed if the applicability rule does not fail;

wherein the condition rule uses a fact about a product configuration to detect a product issue on the product.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each check further comprises a severity indicator to indicate to a user of the product a subjective indication of the severity of the consequences of the product issue if the product issue is present on the product.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the remediation section further comprises an analysis of the product issue including details about the product issue related to the detection of the product issue.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the remediation section further comprises a recommendation for the product issue including information on how to resolve the product issue detected by the check.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the remediation section further comprises reference document information including files with additional information related to the product issue detected by the check.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each check further comprises a product category indicator;

wherein the product category indicator is used to organize the check in the knowledge repository.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each check further comprises report assignments;

wherein the report assignments are used to organize the output of checks for gathering cumulative information on checks that have been executed on a product.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each check further comprises a keyword searchable by a user to locate a set of relevant checks to send to a knowledge automation engine to detect an issue on the user'"'"'s product.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each check is automated by creating program instructions executable by a processor using the product fact to detect a product issue.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a history file to store changes made to a check over a life of the check.

14. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the rule section comprises a plurality of rules.

15. A system, comprising:

a processor;

memory accessible by the processor and configured to store a check, wherein the check comprises;

an applicability rule formatted in knowledge predicate language executable by the processor to detect if the check is related to relevant product characteristics;

a condition rule formatted in knowledge predicate language executable by the processor to detect a product issue; and

a remediation section with information to address the product issue detectable by the rule.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the product issue is related to product installation or a system defect.

17. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the knowledge predicate language has a pattern including an active predicate and one or more operands for the active predicate to act on.

18. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the knowledge predicate language is a typeless language.

19. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the check is executable by a knowledge automation engine configured to automatically evaluate the check against a fact to determine if a product issue specified by the check exists for a product configuration indicated by the fact.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the knowledge repository engine executes the applicability rule and the condition rule in the check against a fact about the product configuration, wherein the fact is stored in a fact repository in a recognizable pattern accessible by the knowledge automation engine.

21. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the condition rule is not executed by the knowledge automation engine if the applicability rule fails.

22. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the information in the remediation section is sent to a user of the product to remedy the product issue if the product issue is detected on the product by the check.

23. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the information in the remediation section is used by the processor to automatically remedy the product issue if the product issue is detected on the product.