Traceability Management for Aligning Solution Artifacts With Business Goals in a Service Oriented Architecture Environment

• US 20110004499A1
• Filed: 07/02/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chee, Yi-Min, Zhang, Liang-Jie, Abdel-Hamid, Teresa, Zhou, Nianjun
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change

Abstract

A method and system for providing traceability management to align IT solution artifacts with business goals in a service oriented architecture environment. A pattern matching framework is provided for generating patterns and transformation enablers for architectural artifacts based on specific business requirements. Patterns that are applicable to a selected set of artifacts or model are provided to an architect, who may then select a particular subset of the patterns to apply to the set of artifacts or model in the SOA solution design to speed up and simplify the design process. Providing applicable or candidate patterns for selection to the architect in the views reduces the possible ambiguity in architectural artifact-pattern matching and selection. These solution patterns may be used as a guide when configuring and linking architectural artifacts and models.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for configuring solution design patterns in a service oriented architecture environment, the computer implemented method comprising:

capturing a set of business requirements by a processing unit in a computer for defining a solution design environment;

deriving a service oriented architecture specification from the captured set of business requirements, wherein the service oriented architecture specification defines service oriented architecture practices that achieve a set of business objectives in accordance with the business requirements;

obtaining a set of architectural artifacts from the service oriented architecture specification;

determining attributes and constraints of the set of architectural artifacts;

deriving solution design pattern rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the solution design pattern rules define transformation relationships among the set of architectural artifacts and define the attributes and business constraints of the set of architectural artifacts; and

generating, by the processing unit, solution design patterns applicable to the design solution based on the solution design pattern rules.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving transformation enabler rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the transformation enabler rules define actions to be applied to the set of architectural artifacts to transform the set of architectural artifacts to another set of architectural artifacts; and

generating, by the processing unit, transformation enablers applicable to the design solution based on the transformation enabler rules.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to detecting a selection of an architecture model or set of architectural artifacts by a user, triggering a solution design process, wherein the solution design process comprises;

determining solution design patterns that are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts;

responsive to determining the solution design patterns that are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts, recording all applicable solution design pattern candidates in an enablement history repository;

displaying the applicable solution design pattern candidates in a graphical user interface to the user;

responsive to detecting selection of a solution design pattern in the applicable solution design pattern candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts, recording the selection of the solution design pattern in a pattern selection history for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts, wherein the pattern selection history comprises a selected subset of all solution design patterns listed in the enablement history repository; and

displaying the pattern selection history for the architecture model or set of architectural artifacts to the user in the graphical user interface.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein displaying the applicable solution design pattern candidates in a graphical user interface further comprises:

ranking the selected solution design pattern against other solution design patterns according to applicability of the selected solution design pattern to the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts and usage history of the solution design pattern to form ranked solution design patterns; and

displaying the ranked solution design patterns in the graphical user interface.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

responsive to determining that there are no solution design patterns that are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts, generating a new solution design pattern that is applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts;

storing the new solution design pattern in a pattern repository; and

validating the new solution design pattern.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

responsive to determining that there are no solution design patterns that are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts, populating the selected architecture model with one or more architectural artifacts without using an applicable solution design pattern.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein recording the selected solution design pattern in a pattern selection history provides traceability information to the user.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the traceability information is used to modify guidelines and best practices in the solution design environment.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein recording the selected solution design pattern in a pattern selection history provides architecture model or artifact reusability information to the user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining which solution design patterns are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts comprises accessing a model-pattern or artifact-pattern matching lookup table in the enablement history repository to identify patterns matching the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the transformation enablers comprise selectable menu items in the graphical user interface and are applied to the set of architectural artifacts to transform the set of architectural artifacts to another set of architectural artifacts.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining that solution design patterns that are applicable candidates for the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts further includes triggering the transformation enablers to apply to the set of architectural artifacts.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the transformation relationships among the set of architectural artifacts are created based on an impact of the set of architectural artifacts on the solution design.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing a service oriented architecture consulting service to a customer comprising the solution design patterns and transformation enablers to facilitate solution design support.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein displaying the applicable solution design pattern candidates in the graphical user interface allows the user to select one or more solution design pattern candidates to apply to the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying attributes or status of the selected architecture model or set of architectural artifacts in the graphical user interface.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein geometric shape indicators in the graphical user interface categorize each architectural artifact according to a source from which an architectural artifact is derived.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the graphical user interface in the displaying the pattern selection history for the architecture model or set of architectural artifacts to the user in the graphical user interface comprises multi-dimensional cascading views of the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the multi-dimensional cascading views allow for identifying problems in the solution design, estimating completion of a process, analyzing an impact of a change to the set of architectural artifacts on the solution design, and verifying compliance to a set of architectural guidelines.

19. An apparatus for configuring solution design patterns in a service oriented architecture environment, the apparatus comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains computer usable code; and

a processing unit connected to the bus, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable code to capture a set of business requirements by a processing unit in a computer for defining a solution design environment;

derive a service oriented architecture specification from the captured set of business requirements, wherein the service oriented architecture specification defines service oriented architecture practices that achieve a set of business objectives in accordance with the business requirements;

obtain a set of architectural artifacts from the service oriented architecture specification;

determine attributes and constraints of the set of architectural artifacts;

derive solution design pattern rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the solution design pattern rules define transformation relationships among the set of architectural artifacts and define the attributes and business constraints of the set of architectural artifacts;

derive transformation enabler rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the transformation enabler rules define actions to be applied to the set of architectural artifacts to transform the set of architectural artifacts to another set of architectural artifacts;

generate, by the processing unit, solution design patterns applicable to the design solution based on the solution design pattern rules; and

generate, by the processing unit, transformation enablers applicable to the design solution based on the transformation enabler rules.

20. A computer program product for configuring solution design patterns in a service oriented architecture environment, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code for execution by a computer, comprising;

computer readable program code for capturing a set of business requirements by a processing unit in a computer for defining a solution design environment;

computer readable program code for deriving a service oriented architecture specification from the captured set of business requirements, wherein the service oriented architecture specification defines service oriented architecture practices that achieve a set of business objectives in accordance with the business requirements;

computer readable program code for obtaining a set of architectural artifacts from the service oriented architecture specification;

computer readable program code for determining attributes and constraints of the set of architectural artifacts;

computer readable program code for deriving solution design pattern rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the solution design pattern rules define transformation relationships among the set of architectural artifacts and define the attributes and business constraints of the set of architectural artifacts;

computer readable program code for deriving transformation enabler rules for the set of architectural artifacts, wherein the transformation enabler rules define actions to be applied to the set of architectural artifacts to transform the set of architectural artifacts to another set of architectural artifacts;

computer readable program code for generating, by the processing unit, solution design patterns applicable to the design solution based on the solution design pattern rules; and

computer readable program code for generating, by the processing unit, transformation enablers applicable to the design solution based on the transformation enabler rules.