Method, system, and program for defining and managing complex contingent rules, and exceptions thereto, in a rule-based computer system

• US 20060184492A1
• Filed: 11/17/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jeffrey G. Long, Jimmy J. Jenkins
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey G. Long, Jimmy J. Jenkins
• Inventors: Jenkins, Jimmy J., Long, Jeffrey G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,461,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

An apparatus for storage, selective inspection, and execution of complex, contingent rules, comprises a computer having one or more central processing units, a user interface, and magnetic, optical, or other media for data and program storage and retrieval. Rules are defined partly as programs and partly as data. Access procedures for selecting certain appropriate rules under the defined conditions. A display or other output procedures for conveying the results of the rule selections to people, to the computer executing the rules, and to other computers.

Claims

1. An apparatus for storage, selective inspection, and execution of complex, contingent rules, comprising:

a computer having one or more central processing units, a user interface, and magnetic, optical, or other media for data and program storage and retrieval;

wherein rules are defined partly as programs and partly as data;

access procedures for selecting certain appropriate rules under the defined conditions; and

display or other output procedures for conveying the results of the rule selections to people, to the computer executing the rules, and to other computers.

2. The apparatus of clam 1, wherein many of the rules governing the apparatus can be changed directly by trained end-user rule-makers, without recourse to new programming, which rules are each defined as one or more data records.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the rules represented as data consist of:

simplified existential rules that declare the existence of each and every organizational entity known to the system, which rules contain only a declaration of each entity'"'"'s identifier and certain meta-data information such as a Pin Flag to specify whether the rule can safely be changed at will;

a Research Flag to indicate whether the rule requires further research on the part of a rule-maker; and

the date of the latest update to the rule;

protocol rules defining various standard and non-standard (e.g., emergency) operating procedures, as well as certain meta-data information;

meta-protocol rules defining masks and mask sequences for determining which protocol rules to follow, as well as certain meta-data information;

attribute rules for defining the attributes, categories, and relationships of entities known to the system, as well as certain meta-data information; and

wherein the various rules can be modified directly by an administrator without recourse to further software programming.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the rules define the preferred behavior and operations of any organization, comprising:

work process information regarding work processes or workflows that the organization intends to use;

structural information regarding the categories and relations among entities defined by he system; and

ancillary information that helps provide decision support for the users of the system even though it has no technical use within the system.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein all work to be managed by the system is defined and represented by one or more workorders;

comprising;

explicit workorders for work generated by an authorized agency; and

implicit workorders that are entailed in the explicit workorders in order to complete the explicit workorders to the satisfaction of all parties;

a user interface for specifying explicit workorders to the system; and

a user interface for providing access to said explicit and implicit workorders by appropriate agencies.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the workorder generation procedures are configured to generate new workorders (“

implicit workorders”

), and new attributes of existing workorders, from either explicit workorders or from previously-generated implicit workorders, by accessing data structures that store workorder and work attribute generation rules as data, said rules defining the desired behavior of the organization.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

graphical user interfaces, and other computer interfaces, provide for entry of new explicit workorders; and

graphical user interfaces, and other computer interfaces, provide for user review and action upon new implicit workorders.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

implicit workorders have attributes (such as, but not limited to, customer, product, and/or location); and

the selection criteria for generating implicit workorders from implicit workorders is based at least in part on the attributes of the implicit workorder that is acting as a stimulus to the generation of other implicit workorders.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

explicit and implicit workorders have attributes such as customer, product, and/or location; and

the selection criteria for generating new work attributes for existing workorders is based at least in part on the attributes of the explicit or implicit workorder that is acting as a stimulus to generate said work attributes.

10. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

One or more meta-protocol tables that specify a sequenced plurality of translation rules; and

software procedures to apply the meta-protocol translation rules and generate one or more masks to use against a work protocol table;

wherein the mask-generating procedures are configured to modify a set of input values by translating them into other values according to the meta-protocol translation rules;

wherein the translation rules specify possible attribute values in an entity attribute table;

wherein the translation occurs by using each input value along with a specified attribute type, to retrieve the value of the attribute type and to then add the value of the attribute type as part of the input key used to check the work protocol table for further work instructions; and

wherein the meta-protocol translation rules can be modified by a rule-maker.

11. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

a master protocol table for storing a plurality of rules to be followed under various specified circumstances (“

protocols”

); and

the workorder generation procedures are configured to check (invoke) a particular protocol based on the mask(s) generated by the translation rules specified in the meta-protocol table

12. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

attribute tables for storing and specifying a plurality of categories, attributes, and relations among entities,

wherein the rules stored in the table can be used to create masks and thereby invoke selected protocols based on the masks, and

wherein each possible category of attribute is specified in its own column (e.g., a column for agencies, another for locations, another for products or services, etc.); and

the values of any column must match values that have been previously entered into an associated existential table

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein:

Workorders assigned to each user are displayed in a treeview list as an inverted tree,

wherein each node of the tree may have children that can be viewed by clicking on the node with a pointer device such as a cursor driven by a mouse; and

a plurality of work types exists; and

different panels are provided based on the work type selected; and

a panel is displayed to the user for each workorder selected; and

said panel contains controls (buttons, list boxes, etc) that assist the user in carrying out the work specified by the workorder.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said program or programs further comprise collision avoidance for detecting when two or more duplicate implicit workorders are generated from the same explicit workorder and for accepting and keeping only the first such duplicate implicit workorder generated.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said program or programs further comprises:

means for storing and accessing relative sequencing rules, said rules defining the order in which implicit workorders are to be performed by a computer, such that implicit workorders are performed by a computer in the correct sequence.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said computer program or programs further comprise means for responding to a “

submit”

command indicating work directed by an implicit workorder has been completed, and for accessing the next implicit workorder in the sequence defined by the Work protocol rules to direct the work defined therein be completed next.