Administrator-defined mandatory compliance expression

• US 20080021716A1
• Filed: 07/19/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Harrison, Roger, Buss, Duane
• Application Number:
  US11/490,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021716A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products

Abstract

A system and method for conforming a decision to a compliance expression is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an intermediate conclusion generated by a decision system as a result of a policy evaluation performed based on at least one of a premise and a policy expression; performing a compliance evaluation to determine conformance of the received intermediate conclusion with a compliance expression; responsive to the performing a compliance evaluation, selectively executing a compliance statement in connection with the intermediate conclusion; and subsequent to the selectively executing, issuing a decision response, wherein the decision response conforms to the compliance expression.

Claims

1. A method for conforming a decision response to a compliance expression, the method comprising:

receiving an intermediate conclusion generated by a decision system as a result of a policy evaluation performed based on at least one of a premise and a policy expression;

performing a compliance evaluation to determine conformance of the received intermediate conclusion with a compliance expression;

responsive to the performing a compliance evaluation, selectively executing a compliance statement in connection with the intermediate conclusion; and

subsequent to the selectively executing, issuing a decision response, wherein the decision response conforms to the compliance expression.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the compliance expression comprises at least one of an administrator-defined expression and a derived expression.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the compliance expression comprises at least one of an allowed system state description, a disallowed system state description, and a preferred system state description.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the performing a compliance evaluation comprises analyzing at least one of a premise, a policy expression, a compliance expression, and a duty.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the performing a compliance evaluation is performed by a compliance manager.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the selectively executing a compliance statement comprises at least one of producing a decision response, performing a compliance evaluation, returning control to the decision system, adding a premise, removing a premise, transforming a premise, adding a policy expression to the decision system, adding a compliance expression, removing a policy expression in the decision system, removing a compliance expression, transforming a policy expression in the decision system, transforming a compliance expression, creating a decision request, removing a decision request, transforming a decision request, allowing an action, denying an action, transforming an action, formulating a command, reporting a status, creating a record, executing a function, calling an external system, performing a procedure, and following a user-specified procedure.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the compliance evaluation performed on the intermediate conclusion comprises a first compliance evaluation, the method further comprising performing a second compliance evaluation on the decision response issued subsequent to the selective executing.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 wherein a relationship between the first compliance evaluation and the second compliance evaluation is defined by at least one of a hierarchy, a graph, a group, and a role.

9. A system for conforming a decision to a compliance expression, the system comprising:

a decision system for performing a policy evaluation responsive to a decision request based on at least one of a premise and a policy expression, wherein the result of the performing a policy evaluation comprises an intermediate conclusion; and

a first compliance system for;

performing a compliance evaluation to determine conformance of the intermediate conclusion with a compliance expression;

responsive to the performing a compliance evaluation, selectively executing a compliance statement in connection with the intermediate conclusion; and

subsequent to the selectively executing, issuing a decision response, wherein the decision response conforms to the compliance expression.

10. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the compliance expression comprises at least one of an administrator-defined expression and a derived expression.

11. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the compliance expression comprises at least one of an allowed system state description, a disallowed system state description, and a preferred system state description.

12. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the first compliance system comprises a compliance manager module including a compliance evaluation module.

13. The system as recited in claim 9 further comprising a compliance statement module, the compliance statement module comprising at least one module for at least one of producing a decision response, performing a compliance evaluation, returning control to the decision system, adding a premise, removing a premise, transforming a premise, adding a policy expression to the decision system, adding a compliance expression, removing a policy expression in the decision system, removing a compliance expression, transforming a policy expression in the decision system, transforming a compliance expression, creating a decision request, removing a decision request, transforming a decision request, allowing an action, denying an action, transforming an action, formulating a command, reporting a status, creating a record, executing a function, calling an external system, performing a procedure, and following a user-specified procedure.

14. The system as recited in claim 9 further comprising a module for producing a decision response.

15. The system as recited in claim 9 further comprising a second compliance system connected to receive the decision response issued from the first compliance system.

16. The system as recited in claim 15 wherein the relationship between the first compliance system and the second compliance system is described by one of a hierarchy, graph, group, and a role.

17. A system for conforming a decision response to a compliance expression, the system comprising:

means for receiving an intermediate conclusion generated by a decision system as a result of a policy evaluation performed based on at least one of a premise and a policy expression;

means for performing a compliance evaluation to determine conformance of the received intermediate conclusion with a compliance expression;

means responsive to the performing a compliance evaluation for selectively executing a compliance statement in connection with the intermediate conclusion; and

means for issuing a decision response subsequent to the selectively executing, wherein the decision response conforms to the compliance expression.

18. The system as recited in claim 17 wherein the compliance expression comprises at least one of an administrator-defined expression and a derived expression.

19. The system as recited in claim 17 wherein the means for performing a compliance evaluation comprises means for analyzing at least one of a premise, a policy expression, a compliance expression, and a duty.

20. The system as recited in claim 17 wherein the means for selectively executing a compliance statement comprises at least one of means for producing a decision response, means for performing a compliance evaluation, returning control to the decision system, means for adding a premise, removing a premise, means for transforming a premise, means for adding a policy expression to the decision system, means for adding a compliance expression, means for removing a policy expression in the decision system, removing a compliance expression, means for transforming a policy expression in the decision system, means for transforming a compliance expression, means for creating a decision request, means for removing a decision request, means for transforming a decision request, means for allowing an action, means for denying an action, means for transforming an action, means for formulating a command, means for reporting a status, creating a record, means for executing a function, means for calling an external system, means for performing a procedure, and means for following a user-specified procedure.

21. The system as recited in claim 17 wherein the compliance evaluation performed on the intermediate conclusion comprises a first compliance evaluation, the system further comprising means for performing a second compliance evaluation on the decision response issued subsequent to the selective executing.

22. The system as recited in claim 21 wherein a relationship between the first compliance evaluation and the second compliance evaluation is defined by at least one of a hierarchy, a graph, a group, and a role.