METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ORGANIZING HIERARCHICAL INFORMATION

• US 20070203919A1
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sullivan, Andrew, Denton, Brian, Milne, Robert, Elmer, Brent
• Granted Patent: US 7,885,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer program product for organizing hierarchical information according to a defined objective.

Claims

11. An apparatus for organizing hierarchical information for a service, the apparatus comprising:

means for organizing the hierarchical information into groups and end-items;

means for determining potential combinations, according to an objective function, of the groups and end-items that implement the service; and

means for selecting the potential combination that has the best objective function value.

1. A method of organizing hierarchical information for a service, the method comprising the steps of:

organizing the hierarchical information into groups and end-items;

determining potential combinations, according to an objective function, of the groups and end-items that implement the service; and

selecting the potential combination that has the best objective function value.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

assigning each of the potential combinations a value that reflects their placement within the other potential combinations according to the objective function.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the objective function is least amount of wait time and each end-item is weighted according to relative demand.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the objective function is summing for all end-items (the cost per unit of time for requesting the end-item multiplied by the relative demand multiplied by the total time it would take an individual to get to the end-item).

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of:

sorting for each combination group that can be invoked together at a given level according to the sequence of the service time divided by the sum of (relative demand for the request of any end-item members multiplied by cost per unit of time of an individual requesting the end-item member).

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of:

sorting for each combination end-item that can be invoked together at a given level according to the sequence of the service time divided by the (relative demand for the request the end-item members multiplied by cost per unit of time of an individual requesting the end-item).

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of organizing the hierarchical information includes the steps of:

assigning a level to each group that has other groups as members; and

selecting the potential combinations having a first one of the levels that have a common number of members at a second one of the levels that is one level lower than the first level.

8. the method of claim 7 wherein the step of selecting the potential combination includes the step of:

selecting the potential combination having the level and highest factored ratio size divided by the ratio prompt.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein the service is an automated response service.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the service is a search engine.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising:

means for assigning each of the potential combinations a value that reflects their placement within the other potential combinations according to the objective function.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the objective function is summing for all end-items (the cost per unit of time for requesting the end-item multiplied by the relative demand multiplied by the total time it would take an individual to get to the end-item).

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:

means for sorting for each combination group that can be invoked together at a given level according to the sequence of the service time divided by the sum of (relative demand for the request of any end-item members multiplied by cost per unit of time of an individual requesting the end-item member).

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising:

means for sorting for each combination end-item that can be invoked together at a given level according to the sequence of the service time divided by the (relative demand for the request the end-item members multiplied by cost per unit of time of an individual requesting the end-item).

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the means for organizing the hierarchical information includes:

means for assigning a level to each group that has other groups as members; and

means for selecting the potential combinations having a first one of the levels that have a common number of members at a second one of the levels that is one level lower than the first level.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the means for selecting the potential combination includes:

means for selecting the potential combination having the level and highest factored ratio size divided by the ratio prompt.

12-1. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the objective function is least amount of wait time and each end-item is weighted according to relative demand.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for organizing hierarchical information for a service, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code for organizing the hierarchical information into groups and end-items;

computer usable program code for determining potential combinations, according to an objective function, of the groups and end-items that implement the service; and

computer usable program code for selecting the potential combination that has the best objective function value.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprising:

means for assigning each of the potential combinations a value that reflects their placement within the other potential combinations according to the objective function.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the objective function is least amount of wait time and each end-item is weighted according to relative demand.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein the objective function is summing for all end-items (the cost per unit of time for requesting the end-item multiplied by the relative demand multiplied by the total time it would take an individual to get to the end-item) divided by the sum for all end-items the relative demand for the request of each of the end-items.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising:

computer usable program code for sorting for each combination group that can be invoked together at a given level according to the sequence of the service time divided by the sum of (relative demand for the request of any end-item members multiplied by cost per unit of time of an individual requesting the end-item member.