Methods and tools for creating and evaluating system blueprints

• US 20080046299A1
• Filed: 08/13/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aware Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Aware Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Simons, Suzanne Barber, Graser, Thomas Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and tools for creating and evaluating a set of system blueprints pertaining to the delivery of a system or a project. Each blueprint is an architecture design/specification that enables analysis of each blueprint, families of blueprints and relationships between blueprint layers. The present invention allows a user to create various system blueprints based on data from existing databases containing requirements, solutions, and deployments of a system or project. First, the user creates a Business Blueprint from the existing requirements database. Next, using the Business Blueprint, the user can create one or more Solution Blueprints based on the solutions in the existing solutions database to satisfy the requirements in the Business Blueprint. Third, the user uses each Solution Blueprint to create one or more Deployment Blueprint based on deployment platforms and milestones in the existing deployment database for the deployment and delivery of the selected solutions. After creating each blueprint, users may view the blueprint to visually detect problems and further revise the blueprint. In addition, for each type of blueprint, the user can evaluate the blueprint against various metrics and criteria related to requirements, solutions, and deployments and view the evaluation results.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing requirements, solutions, and deployments pertaining to the delivery of a project, comprising the steps of:

a) creating a first blueprint by selecting one or more requirements pertaining to the project;

b) creating one or more second blueprints by selecting one or more solutions to satisfy the requirements selected in the first blueprint;

c) for each of the one or more second blueprints, creating one or more third blueprints by selecting one or more deployments for deploying the solutions selected in each of the one or more second blueprints;

d) displaying the first blueprint, the one or more second blueprints, and the one or more third blueprints in a graphical format; and

e) providing a means for evaluating the first blueprint, the one or more second blueprints, and the one or more third blueprints by selecting metrics and criteria to analyze each blueprint.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metrics and criteria to be selected are related to requirements.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the metrics and criteria to be selected are related to solutions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metrics and criteria to be selected are related to deployments.

5. A computer-implemented method for analyzing requirements, solutions and deployments, the method comprising the steps of:

a) obtaining a first database having requirements, solutions, and deployments, wherein (i) requirements comprise functions, data, and events;

(ii) solutions have installation requirements; and

(iii) deployments comprise sites, milestones, platforms, and infrastructure resources;

b) creating a first blueprint by selecting one or more requirements from the first database;

c) creating a second blueprint by selecting one or more solutions from the first database to satisfy the selected requirements of the first blueprint;

d) creating a third blueprint by selecting a deployment from the first database to deploy the selected solutions in the second blueprint;

e) storing the first blueprint, the second blueprint, and the third blueprint in a second database; and

f) displaying the first blueprint, the second blueprint, and the third blueprint in a graphical format.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprises of the step of providing a means for evaluating the first blueprint, the second blueprint, and the third blueprint against various metrics and criteria.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprises of the step of providing a means for editing and correcting the first blueprint, the second blueprint, and the third blueprint.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of selecting of one or more solutions to satisfy the requirements of the first blueprint is performed automatically by matching the selected requirements against the solutions to determine a best fit.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of selecting one or more deployments to deploy the selected solutions is performed automatically by matching the solutions to deployments to determine a best fit.

10. A computer system comprising:

a) a first database containing one or more requirements comprising functions, data, and events,

wherein functions having dependencies with other functions, and

wherein functions are grouped into business blueprint components;

b) a second database containing one or more solutions, wherein the one or more solutions are (i) mapped to the functions in the first database and (ii) have installation requirements related to the deployment of the solution;

c) a third database containing one or more deployments, wherein deployments are mapped to the functions in the first database and wherein deployments comprise deployment platforms having infrastructure resources;

d) graphical user interface coupled to the databases for;

1) creating a first blueprint by selecting one or more requirements from the first database, organizing the requirements into business blueprint components, and displaying graphically the dependencies of the functions and business blueprint components;

2) creating a second blueprint by selecting one or more solutions from the second database to satisfy the selected requirements of the first blueprint and displaying graphically whether the selected solutions satisfy the functions of the selected requirements;

3) creating a third blueprint by selecting one or more deployments from the third database to deploy the selected solutions in the second blueprint and displaying graphically whether infrastructure resources in the selected deployment platforms comprise functionality to fully deploy the installation requirements of the selected solutions; and

e) a fourth database operable to store the blueprints.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising evaluation means for evaluating the blueprints against a set of metrics and criteria.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for editing the blueprints.

13. A computer system comprising:

a) a first database containing one or more requirements, wherein each requirement of the one or more requirements has dependencies with one or more other requirements;

b) a second database containing one or more solutions,

wherein the one or more solutions are mapped to the one or more requirements of the first database, and

wherein the one or more solutions have installation requirements related to the deployment of the solution;

c) a third database containing one or more deployments,

wherein the one or more deployments are mapped to requirements in the first database, and

wherein deployments comprise deployment platforms having infrastructure resources;

d) graphical user interface coupled to the first database, the second database and the third database for;

1) creating a first blueprint by selecting one or more requirements from the first database and causing the mapping of the dependencies of the requirements;

2) creating a second blueprint by selecting one or more solutions from the second database to satisfy the selected requirements of the first blueprint and causing the mapping of the selected solutions to the requirements based on whether the solutions satisfy the requirements;

3) creating a third blueprint by selecting one or more deployments from the third database to deploy the selected solutions in the second blueprint and causing the mapping of the selected deployments to the solutions based on whether the deployments can deploy the solutions;

e) means for analyzing the blueprints using a plurality of evaluation modules.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for storing blueprints.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for displaying blueprints and a mapping.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation modules are external modules and programs that can be added to the system on an as needed basis.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation modules perform at least one selected from a group consisting of integration evaluation, performance evaluation, reliability evaluation, correctness evaluation, completeness evaluation, reuse evaluation, and reliability evaluation on the business blueprints.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation modules perform at least one selected from a group consisting of performance evaluation, reliability evaluation, and compliance evaluation on the solution blueprints.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation modules perform at least one selected from a group consisting of resource compatibility evaluation and resource sufficiency evaluation on the deployment blueprints.

20. A data structure defining a project, comprising:

a) a first blueprint comprising one or more data objects pertaining to requirements of the project;

b) a second blueprint comprising one or more data objects pertaining to solutions of the project;

c) a third blueprint comprising one or more data objects pertaining to deployments of the project; and

d) means for mapping each data object to one or more other data objects based on the relationship and dependency between the one or more data objects, wherein (i) data objects pertaining to solutions are associated to data objects pertaining to requirements based on whether the solutions satisfy the requirements of the project; and

(ii) data objects pertaining to solutions are associated to data objects pertaining to deployments based on whether the deployments are compatible with the solutions.

21. The data structure of claim 20, wherein the requirements comprise functions, data, and events.

22. The data structure of claim 20, wherein solutions have installation requirements.

23. The data structure of claim 20, wherein deployments comprise a plurality of sites, each site comprises a plurality of deployment milestones, wherein each deployment milestone has one or more infrastructure resources available at that milestone.