End-to-end business process solution creation

• US 20050091093A1
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kumaran, Santhosh, Koehler, Jana, Buckley, Stephen J., Bhaskaran, Kumar, Zhu, Jun, Huang, Ying, Nandi, Prabir, Tian, Zhong, Wang, Jian, Kapoor, Shubir, Chang, Hung-Yang, Nigam, Anil, Caswell, Nathan S., Frank, Joachim H., Hauser, Rainer F., Wu, Frederick Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/692,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20050091093A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis

Abstract

A system and method for creating and managing a business process integration solution comprises modeling a business strategy including elements representing business measurements and initiatives according to defined business goals and objectives of an entity; modeling business operations of the entity in terms of business process elements including process tasks, artifact flows and artifact repositories, and business commitment elements including incorporating key performance indicators; mapping elements of the strategy model with artifact and process elements of the operations model; and, measuring business performance and comparing performance measurements against the key performance indicators. The business strategy and operation model process elements may be continuously refined over a solution development lifecycle as a result of process measurements and comparing. A business level modeling language is further implemented for formally representing the business operations.

Claims

1. A system for creating and managing a business process integration solution comprising:

means for modeling a business strategy including elements representing business measurements and initiatives according to defined business goals and objectives of an entity;

means for modeling business operations of said entity in terms of business process elements including process tasks, artifact flows and artifact repositories, said business process element incorporating key performance indicators; and

data structures means for mapping elements of the strategy model with artifact and process elements of the operations model, means for measuring business performance and comparing performance against said key performance indicators, wherein said business strategy and operation model process elements may be continuously refined over a solution development lifecycle as a result of process measurements and comparing.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for transforming operations model elements into a platform independent information technology (IT) executable solution model comprising business solution artifacts.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes business objects representing business documents or materials, contracts or work products.

4. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes adaptive business objects capturing state-dependent behavior.

5. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes macroflows representing interruptible process flows and microflows representing represent non-interruptible process flows.

6. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes application adapters that transform data for and interface with application software.

7. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes business-business connectors that transform data for and interface with external business systems.

8. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein solution artifacts includes portal artifacts that enable human users to interact with the solution.

9. The system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising means for defining details of one or more said IT solution artifacts in a manner such that said solution artifacts may be bound and deployed to one or more specific runtime platforms.

10. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said transforming means transforms said key performance indicators into IT probes in the IT executable solution model, said probes for real-time monitoring and reporting business process performance as measured by said key performance indicators defined in the operation model.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for recommending or effecting changes to a business process to improve its performance in view of said business measuring means.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for measuring and comparing business performance includes a simulation means implementing simulation models in at least one of the strategy, operation, execution and implementation models.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for modeling business operations of said entity include implementing a business level modeling language for formally representing said business operations.

14. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said business level modeling language for formally representing said business operations models business operations according to a schema.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said schema represents an information model including artifacts and business events pertaining to an operational view of said business entity.

16. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said schema represents an business functions including processes, tasks, artifact repositories and their interconnections

17. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said schema represents an resources including roles and resource groups.

18. A method for creating and managing a business process integration solution comprising the steps of:

a) modeling a business strategy including elements representing business measurements and initiatives according to defined business goals and objectives of an entity;

b) modeling business operations of said entity in terms of business process elements including process tasks, artifact flows and artifact repositories, and business commitment elements including incorporating key performance indicators;

c) mapping elements of the strategy model with artifact and process elements of the operations model; and

,

d) measuring business performance and comparing performance measurements against said key performance indicators, wherein said business strategy and operation model process elements may be continuously refined over a solution development lifecycle as a result of process measurements and comparing.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the step of transforming operations model elements into a platform independent information technology (IT) solution model comprising business solution artifacts.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein solution artifacts include one or more selected from the group comprising:

business objects adaptive business objects, macroflows, microflows application adapters, business-business connectors, and portal artifacts.

21. The method as claimed in claim 19, further comprising the step of defining details of one or more said IT solution artifacts, binding and deploying said solution artifacts to one or more specific runtime platforms.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising the step of:

transforming said key performance indicators into IT probes in the IT executable solution model, said probes enabling real-time monitoring and reporting of business process performance as measured by said key performance indicators defined.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising the step of recommending or effecting changes to a business process to improve its performance in view of said monitoring.

24. The method as claimed in claim 19, further including implementing a business level modeling language for formally representing said business operations, said representing of said business operations models business operations according to a schema.

25. A computer storage device tangibly embodying a plurality of instructions for carrying out a method for creating and managing a business process integration solution, the method steps comprising:

a) modeling a business strategy including elements representing business measurements and initiatives according to defined business goals and objectives of an entity;

b) modeling business operations of said entity in terms of business process elements including process tasks, artifact flows and artifact repositories, and business commitment elements including incorporating key performance indicators;

c) mapping elements of the strategy model with artifact and process elements of the operations model; and

,

d) measuring business performance and comparing performance measurements against said key performance indicators, wherein said business strategy and operation model process elements may be continuously refined over a solution development lifecycle as a result of process measurements and comparing.