DERIVING GROUNDED MODEL OF BUSINESS PROCESS SUITABLE FOR AUTOMATIC DEPLOYMENT

• US 20080270973A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Graupner, Sven, Wilcock, Lawrence, Edwards, Nigel, Belrose, Guillaume Alexandre, Rolia, Jerome
• Granted Patent: US 8,904,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202

Abstract

A business process (15) having a number of computer implemented steps using software application components, to enable automatic deployment on computing infrastructure, is modelled by a management system. It automatically derives a grounded model (55) of the business process from an unbound model (25) of the business process, based on an infrastructure design template (35). The unbound model specifies the application components to be used, and the grounded model adds a complete design of the computing infrastructure to be used. The use of an infrastructure design template can reduce the large number of options to be evaluated to help reduce the complexity of generating or changing the grounded model. The infrastructure design template formally relates the business process, application components and infrastructure design so that designs, or changes which are inconsistent or inefficient can be avoided. Thus more automation of the designing and changing the design is feasible.

Claims

1. A method of modelling a business process having a number of computer implemented steps using software application components, to enable automatic deployment on computing infrastructure, the method having the steps of:

automatically deriving a grounded model of the business process from an unbound model of the business process, the unbound model specifying the application components to be used for each of the computer implemented steps of the business process, without a complete design of the computing infrastructure, and the grounded model specifying a complete design of the computing infrastructure suitable for automatic deployment of the business process,

the deriving of the grounded model having the steps of providing an infrastructure design template having predetermined parts of the computing infrastructure, predetermined relationships between the parts, and having a limited number of options to be completed, generating a candidate grounded model by generating a completed candidate infrastructure design based on the infrastructure design template, and generating a candidate configuration of the software application components used by the unbound model, and evaluating the candidate grounded model, to determine if it can be used as the grounded model.

2. The method of claim 1, the deriving of the grounded model being part of an initial deployment of the computer implemented steps of the business process.

3. The method of claim 1, the deriving of the grounded model being part of a method of changing an existing deployment of the business process.

4. The method of claim 3, the existing deployment having been created using a template, and the same template being provided for the step of deriving the grounded model for changing the existing deployment.

5. The method of claim 1, the deriving of the grounded model involving specifying all servers needed for the application components.

6. The method of claim 1, the deriving of the grounded model involving specifying a mapping of each of the application components to a server.

7. The method of claim 1, the deriving of the grounded model having the step of specifying a configuration of management infrastructure for monitoring of the deployed business process in use.

8. The method of claim 1, having the step of deriving more than one grounded model, each for deployment of the same business process at different times.

9. The method of claim 1, the unbound model having a complete functional specification for implementing the steps of the business process, and specifying some non functional requirements.

10. The method of claim 9, the non functional requirements comprising any one or more of:

a number of concurrent users, an indication of desired response time, an availability level, and a security level.

11. The method of claim 1, the unbound model having performance or capacity goals, and the evaluating step involving simulating the candidate grounded model and comparing the performance or capacity of the simulated candidate grounded model with the goals.

12. The method of claim 1, the infrastructure comprising virtualized entities.

13. The method of claim 12, the deriving of the grounded model being arranged to specify one or more virtualized entities without indicating how the virtualised entities are hosted.

14. The method of claim 13, the template specifying virtual entities, and a mapping of the application components to the virtual entities.

15. The method of claim 1 having the further step of converting the grounded model to a bound model, by reserving resources in the adaptable infrastructure for deploying the bound model.

16. The method of claim 15, having the further step of deploying the bound model by installing and starting the application components of the bound model.

17. A system for modelling a business process having a number of computer implemented steps using software application components, to enable automatic deployment on computing infrastructure, the system having:

a processor arranged to automatically derive a grounded model of the business process from an unbound model of the business process, the unbound model specifying the application components to be used for each of the computer implemented steps of the business process, without a complete design of the computing infrastructure, and the grounded model specifying a complete design of the computing infrastructure suitable for automatic deployment of the business process,

the processor being arranged to retrieve an infrastructure design template having predetermined parts of the computing infrastructure, predetermined relationships between the parts, and having a limited number of options to be completed,

the processor being arranged to generate a candidate grounded model by generating a completed candidate infrastructure design based on the infrastructure design template, and being arranged to generate a candidate configuration of the software application components used by the unbound model, and being arranged to evaluate the candidate grounded model, to determine if it can be used as the grounded model.

18. A method of using a management system for modelling a business process having a number of computer implemented steps using software application components, to enable automatic deployment on computing infrastructure, the method having the steps of:

inputting to the management system a design for the business process, and causing the system to generate an unbound model of the business process, the unbound model specifying the application components to be used for each of the computer implemented steps of the business process, without a complete design of the computing infrastructure,

inputting to the management system a selection of an infrastructure design template having predetermined parts of the computing infrastructure, predetermined relationships between the parts, and having a limited number of options to be completed,

causing the system to derive automatically a grounded model of the business process from the unbound model, based on the infrastructure design template, the grounded model specifying a complete design of the computing infrastructure suitable for automatic deployment of the business process, and

receiving from the management system, results of monitoring the deployed business process.

19. The method of claim 18, having the steps of designing a change in an existing deployed business process and causing the system to derive automatically a grounded model of the change, based on the same template, for automatic deployment.