METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MODELING SERVICES IN A SERVICE-ORIENTED BUSINESS

• US 20080270201A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nigam, Anil, Flaxer, David, Marston, David, Nayak, Nitinchandra Ratankumar, Sanz, Jorge Luciano Claudio
• Application Number:
  US11/742,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270201A1
• 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 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

A method of modeling a service-oriented business including identifying a business service to provide, creating its business specification which specifies business requirements for the provided service, the business specification of a service, and service management terms, storing the business specification for the provided service in a service catalog, creating and reviewing its business process model, the business process model providing a sequence of business tasks in the business process, analyzing each of the business tasks to determine which of the business tasks should be accomplished via required service, process modeling each of the business tasks that are not service tasks, storing a process model for each of the business tasks that are not service tasks in a operation model repository, creating a business specification for each required service and storing the business specification for each of the required services in a repository of business specifications of required services.

Claims

1. A method of modeling a service-oriented business, comprising:

identifying a business service to provide based on at least one of a consumer request, market needs, and capability analysis;

creating a business specification for the provided service, the business specification of a service specifying business requirements for the service;

the business specification of a service comprising details of the business service including a description of a functions of the business service, service consumption terms, service performance terms, and service management terms;

storing the business specification of the service for each of the service tasks in a service catalog;

creating and reviewing a business process model for each service function, said business process model providing a sequence of steps in the business process, but not decomposing each of said steps into smaller steps until said steps are resolved through the method;

analyzing each of said steps to determine which shall use service tasks;

searching one or more service catalogs to find service offerings that perform at least some of said steps;

process modeling each of said steps that are not using service tasks, said process modeling being suitable for communicating between a service provider and a service implementer;

storing a process model for each of said steps that are not using service tasks in a operation model repository;

creating a business specification of a service for each of said steps that are using service tasks based on at least one of a service provider and a service consumer, said business service specification being suitable for communication between a service consumer and the service provider, said business service specification specifying service requirements for said service task, said business service specification enabling recursive decomposition of the service, said business service specification comprising details of a business service including a description of a function of the business service, service consumption terms, service performance terms, and service management terms; and

storing said business service specification for each of said service tasks that are being used in a repository of business specifications of services.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said business service specification further comprises a service preamble, said service preamble comprising a service description and service provider information including a name of the service provider and contact information for the service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said description of the function of the business service comprises a name of the functions, a description of the complexity of the functions, and input and output artifacts associated with the function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said service consumption terms comprise:

delivery terms and conditions, which describe a duration of the service, a delivery mode of the service, and delivery exception handling of the service; and

financial terms and conditions including currency, exchange rate, payment schedule, discount schedule, rebates and cancellation fees.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said service performance terms comprise:

performance metrics measuring said service performance including speed, quantity, quality of service and error rates;

a manner in which service consumption information is reported to the service consumer; and

service performance failure penalties.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said service management terms comprise:

governance policies including rules associated with providing and consuming services; and

exception management including a process for resolving exception situations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said service provider is integrated into the organization of the service consumer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said service provider is a separate organization from said service consumer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said reviewing the business process model and said analyzing each of said steps is performed with a tool that integrates a business service editor and an operation modeler, allowing a business architect to model the business specification of a provided service and its service operation model while also allowing one to model the business specification of required services identified within the service operation model.