MATCHING OF CASES BASED ON ATTRIBUTES INCLUDING AN ATTRIBUTE RELATING TO FLOW OF ACTIVITIES

• US 20130073557A1
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hamid Reza Motahari Nezhad
• Inventors: Bartolini, Claudio, Joshi, Parag M., NEZHAD, HAMID REZA MOTAHARI
• Granted Patent: US 9,646,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models

Abstract

A particular case is matched to further cases, where the matching is based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the further cases, wherein one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a system having a processor, a particular case that is associated with an issue that is to be addressed by an enterprise; and

matching, by the system, the particular case to further cases that have been processed, the matching comprises matching based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the further cases, wherein a given one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

building indexes for respective ones of at least some of the plural attributes,

wherein the matching uses the indexes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching based on the plural attributes further comprises matching based on attributes selected from the group consisting of:

case tag, case title, expert information, participant comments, customer information, case priority, case description, case type, case resolution information, and steps information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching based on the plural attributes further comprises matching based on multiple types of attributes selected from the group consisting of a categorical attribute, a keyword-based attribute, a textual attribute, and a sequence-based attribute,

wherein the given attribute that relates to the flow of activities is a sequence-based attribute.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, for each individual one of multiple ones of the plural attributes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, based on similarity scores computed for the plural attributes.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the matching further comprises computing a weighted aggregating of the similarity scores for each of the further cases to identify the predefined number of the further cases.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises one of matching in a basic matching mode based on the plural attributes, and matching in an advanced mode that is based on additional attributes in addition to the plural attributes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the particular case comprises receiving the particular case associated with a collaboration-based management process, where the particular case contains information due to collaboration among personnel.

10. An article comprising at least one machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause a system to:

compare attributes of a particular case to attributes of further cases that have been processed, wherein the particular case and further cases relate to at least one issue that is to be addressed by an enterprise, wherein the attributes compared include an attribute relating to a flow of activities taken in the particular case; and

based on the comparing, match at least one of the further cases to the particular case.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein the particular case is a particular information technology (IT) support case, and wherein the further cases are further IT support cases.

12. The article of claim 10, wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, based on the comparing.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein the comparing comprises computing similarity scores for each individual one of at least some of the plural attributes, wherein the similarity scores for a given one of the at least some attributes indicate similarities of the further cases to the particular case,

wherein the matching is based on the similarity scores.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein the matching comprises aggregating, for each of the further cases, similarity scores for respective ones of the at least some attributes.

15. The article of claim 14, wherein the aggregating comprises weighted aggregating in which weights are assigned to respective ones of the similarity scores.

16. The article of claim 10, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the system to further:

build indexes for respective ones of at least some of the plural attributes,

wherein the comparing uses the indexes.

17. The article of claim 10, wherein the plural attributes include multiple types of attributes selected from the group consisting of a categorical attribute, a keyword-based attribute, a textual attribute, and a sequence-based attribute.

18. A system comprising:

at least one storage medium to store a case repository of cases that relate to at least one issue of an enterprise; and

at least one processor to;

receive a particular case; and

match the particular case to the cases in the case repository, the matching based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the cases in the case repository, wherein a given one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the matching is further based on multiple types of attributes selected from the group consisting of a categorical attribute, a keyword-based attribute, a textual attribute, and a sequence-based attribute,

wherein the given attribute that relates to the flow of activities is a sequence-based attribute.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the matching identifies a predefined number of the cases in the case repository that are most similar to the particular case, based on similarity scores computed for the plural attributes, wherein each of the similarity scores is computed based on a weighted aggregate of individual similarity scores for respective ones of the plural attributes.