SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGES TO THE CONFIGURATION OF RESOURCES IN AN ENTERPRISE

• US 20070100712A1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Kephart, Aaron, Kirkland, Wallace, Kilpatrick, Brian, Maloney, Robert, Gatrell, Carol
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials

Abstract

System and method for facilitating the implementation of changes to the configuration of resources in an enterprise. Embodiments of the present invention facilitate the use of historical information about an enterprise'"'"'s IT configuration to evaluate the risk and impact of proposed changes. Risk can be evaluated using a success history for an organization within the enterprise that is responsible for the proposed change, or by applying a neural network to the historical data to detect recognizable patterns in the historical data. A risk evaluation can take into account sensitivity of the change to dates assigned on a change calendar, based on sensitivity dates gathered from the historical data. Historical data can be maintained and provided by a configuration database.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating a proposed change to a configuration of information technology resources in an enterprise, the method comprising:

obtaining information about the proposed change;

accessing historical data pertaining to at least one past change to the configuration of the information technology resources;

evaluating a likelihood of success of the proposed change based on the information and the historical data; and

producing an indication of risk associated with the proposed change to the configuration of the information technology resources in the enterprise.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

evaluating an impact for the proposed change to the configuration of the information technology resources; and

producing an indication of the impact of the proposed change.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating of the likelihood of success further comprises accessing a success history within the enterprise.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the producing of the indication of risk further comprises:

assigning relative weights to a success factor based on the success history and a plurality of risk factors to produce a plurality of factors; and

combining the plurality of factors to produce a risk value.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the evaluating of the likelihood of success further comprises applying a neural network to the historical data to detect a recognizable pattern in the historical data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the producing of the indication of risk further comprises:

comparing the recognizable pattern to the information, at least in part based on date sensitivity; and

producing a probability of success based on a result of the comparing.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the historical data is contained in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one of the configuration database and the change database comprises a plurality of configuration items.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the historical data is contained in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one of the configuration database and the change database comprises a plurality of configuration items.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein the historical data is contained in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one of the configuration database and the change database comprises a plurality of configuration items.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

16. The method of claim 6 wherein the historical data is contained in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the at least one of the configuration database and the change database comprises a plurality of configuration items.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

20. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

22. A computer program product for evaluating a proposed change to a configuration of information technology resources in an enterprise, the computer program product comprising a medium including computer program code, the computer program code further comprising:

instructions for obtaining information about the proposed change;

instructions for accessing historical data pertaining to at least one past change to the configuration of the information technology resources;

instructions for evaluating a likelihood of success of the proposed change based on the information and the historical data; and

instructions for producing an indication of risk associated with the proposed change to the configuration of the information technology resources in the enterprise.

23. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein the computer program code further comprises:

instructions for evaluating an impact for the proposed change to the configuration of the information technology resources; and

instructions for producing an indication of the impact of the proposed change.

24. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for accessing a success history within the enterprise.

25. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein the computer program code further comprises:

instructions for assigning relative weights to a success factor based on the success history and a plurality of risk factors to produce a plurality of factors; and

instructions for combining the plurality of factors to produce a risk value.

26. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for applying a neural network algorithm to the historical data to detect a recognizable pattern in the historical data.

27. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the neural network algorithm further comprises:

instructions for comparing the recognizable pattern to the information, at least in part based on date sensitivity; and

instructions for producing a probability of success based on a result of the comparing.

28. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein the historical data is related to at least one configuration item (CI) of a plurality of configuration items that can be stored in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

29. The computer program product of claim 28 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

30. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein the historical data is related to at least one configuration item (CI) of a plurality of configuration items that can be stored in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

31. The computer program product of claim 30 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

32. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the historical data is related to at least one configuration item (CI) of a plurality of configuration items that can be stored in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

33. The computer program product of claim 32 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

34. The computer program product of claim 27 wherein the historical data is related to at least one configuration item (CI) of a plurality of configuration items that can be stored in at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

35. The computer program product of claim 34 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a midrange computer CI, a midrange partition CI, a mainframe computer CI, a logical partition (LPAR) CI, a software CI, a software component CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

36. The computer program product of claim 28 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

37. The computer program product of claim 30 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

38. The computer program product of claim 32 wherein the at least one configuration item (CI) of the plurality of configuration items is selected from a group consisting of a service CI, a delivery channel CI, an application CI, a sub-system CI, a hardware CI, a physical location CI, and combinations of the foregoing.

39. A system for evaluating a proposed change to a configuration of information technology resources in an enterprise, the system comprising:

means for obtaining information about the proposed change;

means for accessing historical data pertaining to at least one past change to the configuration of the information technology resources;

means for evaluating a likelihood of success of the proposed change based on the information and the historical data; and

means for producing an indication of risk associated with the proposed change to the configuration of the information technology resources in the enterprise.

40. The system of claim 39 further comprising means for producing an indication of an impact of the proposed change.

41. The system of claim 39 further comprising means for accessing a success history within the enterprise.

42. The system of claim 39 further comprising means for applying a neural network algorithm to the historical data to detect a recognizable pattern in the historical data.

43. The system of claim 40 further comprising means for accessing a success history for the enterprise.

44. The system of claim 40 further comprising means for applying a neural network algorithm to the historical data to detect a recognizable pattern in the historical data.

45. The system of claim 39 further comprising at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

46. The system of claim 40 further comprising at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

47. The system of claim 41 further comprising at least one of a configuration database and a change database.

48. The system of claim 42 further comprising at least one of a configuration database and a change database.