Automatically Reviewing Information Mappings Across Different Information Models

• US 20120036110A1
• Filed: 08/06/2010
• Published: 02/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Byrne, Brian Patrick, Fokoue-Nkoutche, Achille Belly, Srinivas, Kavitha, Wang, Min, Kalyanpur, Aditya Anand
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/687
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, system, and program product for automatically reviewing a mapping between information models. The method includes: receiving a mapping between an element in the first information model to an element in the second information model. Each element is associated with an element identifier and an element value, and the mapping signifies a relationship between the element in the first information model and the element in the second information model. The method further includes comparing the received mapping against one or more known indications of suspicious mappings to determine if the received mapping resembles one of the indications of suspicious mappings. If the received mapping is determined to be suspicious, identifying the received mapping as one that requires review.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of automatically reviewing a mapping between a first information model and a second information model comprising the steps of:

receiving a mapping between an element in the first information model to an element in the second information model, wherein each element is associated with an element identifier and an element value, and wherein the mapping signifies a relationship between the element in the first information model and the element in the second information model;

comparing the received mapping against one or more known indications of suspicious mappings to determine if the received mapping resembles one of the indications of suspicious mappings; and

if the received mapping is determined to be suspicious, identifying the received mapping as one that requires review.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein comparing the received mapping against one or more known indications of suspicious mappings comprises evaluating a pattern expression associated with each of the one or more known indications of suspicious mapping against the received mapping.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the pattern expression is stored a query in a query language.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein identifying the received mapping as one that requires review further comprises:

assigning a confidence value to the mapping based on whether the received mapping resembles an indication of a suspicious mapping and based on a severity rating and an explanation associated with that indication of a suspicious mapping.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the known indications suspicious mappings include one or more of the following:

the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of the element in the first information model and there is a element in the second information model that perfectly matches the element in the first model;

the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of any element in the first information model;

the situation where the value of the element in the first information model is duplicated as part of the value of the element in the second information model;

the situation where the element in the first information model is mapped to a plurality of elements in the second information model;

the situation where a plurality of elements in the first information model is mapped to the element in the second information model;

the situation where the identifier of the element in the second information model does not match the identifier of the element in the first information model; and

the situation where the element in the second information model has no value and the element in the first information has a value.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein an indication of a suspicious mapping is specified by a user.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the content of the report is selected from the group consisting of:

the indication of a suspicious mapping that resembles the received mapping;

the severity rating associated with the indication of a suspicious mapping;

the explanation associated with the indication of a suspicious mapping;

the confidence value assigned to the mapping;

an element in the first model to be remapped; and

an alternate value for the element in the second information model.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein an indication of a suspicious mapping is learned from the review of suspicious mappings that are consistently rejected by a user.

9. A computer-implemented system for automatically reviewing a mapping between information models, the system comprising:

an information receiving unit to receive content from a first information model and content a second information model, wherein content from the first information model has been mapped to content from the second information model, wherein the content from the first and second information models each contain at least one element that is associated with an element identifier and an element value, and wherein the mapping is based on a matching of an element in the first information model and to an element in the second information model;

an analyzing unit to analyze the mapping between the content from the first and second information models based on a known indication of a suspicious mapping to determine if the received mapping is suspicious; and

an reporting unit to report the mapping as one that requires review, if the mapping is determined to be suspicious.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the analyzing unit comprises:

a suspicious mapping comparing unit to determine whether the received mapping resembles the indication of a suspicious mapping;

a suspicious mapping identifying unit to identify the mapping as suspicious if the received mapping resembles the indication of a suspicious mapping; and

a confidence value assigning unit to assign a confidence value to the received mapping based on whether the mapping resembles the indication of a suspicious mapping and based on a severity rating and an explanation associated with the indication of a suspicious mapping.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the suspicious mapping identifying unit is to compare the received mapping against the indication of suspicious mapping by evaluating a pattern expression associated with the indication of suspicious mapping against the received mapping.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the indication of a suspicious mapping is assigned a high severity rating if the indication is the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of any element in the first information model.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the identifying unit comprises a reporting unit for generating a report of the suspicious mapping.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the content of the report is selected from the group consisting of:

the indication of a suspicious mapping;

the severity rating associated with the indication of a suspicious mapping;

the explanation associated with the indication of a suspicious mapping;

the confidence value assigned to the mapping;

an element in the first model to be remapped; and

an alternate value for the element in the second information model.

15. A computer program product for automatically reviewing a mapping between information models, said computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith to perform the following;

receiving a mapping between an element in the first information model to an element in the second information model, wherein each element is associated with an element identifier and an element value, and wherein the mapping signifies a relationship between the element in the first information model and the element in the second information model;

comparing the received mapping against one or more known indications of suspicious mappings to determine if the received mapping resembles one of the indications of suspicious mappings; and

if the received mapping is determined to be suspicious, identifying the received mapping as one that requires review.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein identifying the received mapping as one that requires review further comprises:

assigning a confidence value to the mapping based on whether the mapping resembles an indication of a suspicious mapping and based on a severity rating and an explanation associated with that indication of a suspicious mapping.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the known indications suspicious mappings include one or more of the following:

the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of the element in the first information model;

the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of any element in the first information model;

the situation where the value of the element in the first information model is duplicated as part of the value of the element in the second information model;

the situation where the element in the first information model is mapped to a plurality of elements in the second information model;

the situation where a plurality of elements in the first information model is mapped to the element in the second information model;

the situation where the identifier of the element in the second information model does not match the identifier of the element in the first information model; and

the situation where the element in the second information model has no value and the element in the first information has a value.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein an indication of a suspicious mapping is specified by a user.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein an indication of a suspicious mapping is assigned a high severity rating if the indication is the situation where the value of the element in the second information model does not match the value of any element in the first information model.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the step of identifying the mapping as one that requires review comprises:

generating a report of the mapping that requires review.