MANAGING A SERVICE CATALOG THROUGH CROWDSOURCING

• US 20130311644A1
• Filed: 05/21/2012
• Published: 11/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Herger, Lorraine M., Keller, Neal M., McCarthy, Matthew A., Pickover, Clifford A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,959,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/137 Hash-based content-based indexing of textual data G06F16/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for managing a plurality of services in a service catalog. Metadata is received about one or more services. The metadata is analyzed to determine whether to perform a management activity on the service catalog, the management activity including recommending one or more services in the service catalog or coupling two or more services in the service catalog. If it is determined that the received metadata is insufficient, a signal is generated to gather additional metadata within a time period the metadata is determined to be insufficient.

Claims

1. A method for managing a plurality of services in a service catalog, the method comprising:

receiving metadata about one or more of the services;

analyzing, by a computer processor, the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity on the service catalog, the management activity comprising at least one of;

recommending one or more services in the service catalog and coupling two or more services in the service catalog;

determining, based on the analysis, that the received metadata is insufficient; and

generating a signal to gather additional metadata within a time period if the metadata is determined to be insufficient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received metadata comprises multi-dimensional vector information about one or more services.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity further comprises comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold, and, if the multi-dimensional vector information exceeds the threshold, recommending the one or more services associated with the multi-dimensional vector information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to the threshold further comprises at least one of:

comparing a magnitude of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold and comparing a projection of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity further comprises determining a degree of coupling for two or more of the services associated with the metadata.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a degree of coupling for the two or more services comprises one of a tight coupling or a loose coupling.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein determining a degree of coupling for the two or more services includes calculating a distance between the two or more services.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the received metadata is gathered via crowdsourcing and the generated signal further comprises a signal to collect additional metadata via crowdsourcing.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the analysis, that the received metadata is insufficient further comprises comparing a confidence level for the received metadata to a threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising,

determining that the one or more services associated with the metadata are new;

and

based on the determining, lowering the threshold.

11. A system for managing a plurality of services in a service catalog, the system comprising:

a server including a computer processor, the server configured to;

receive metadata about one or more of the services;

analyze, by the processor, the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity on the service catalog, the management activity comprising at least one of;

recommending one or more services in the service catalog and coupling two or more services in the service catalog;

determine, based on the analysis, that the received metadata is insufficient; and

generate a signal to gather additional metadata within a time period if the metadata is determined to be insufficient.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the received metadata comprises multi-dimensional vector information about one or more services.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to analyze the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity by comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold, and, if the multi-dimensional vector information exceeds the threshold, recommending the one or more services associated with the multi-dimensional vector information.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to the threshold further comprises at least one of:

comparing a magnitude of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold and comparing a projection of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to analyze the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity by determining a degree of coupling for two or more of the services associated with the metadata.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein a degree of coupling for the two or more services comprises one of a tight coupling or a loose coupling.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein determining a degree of coupling for the two or more services includes calculating a distance between the two or more services.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the received metadata is gathered via crowdsourcing and the generated signal further comprises a signal to collect additional metadata via crowdsourcing.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to determine, based on the analysis, that the received metadata is insufficient by comparing a confidence level for the received metadata to a threshold.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the server is further configured to:

determine that the one or more services associated with the metadata are new; and

based on the determining, lower the threshold.

21. A computer program product for managing a plurality of services in a service catalog, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to;

receive metadata about one or more of the services;

analyze, by the processor, the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity on the service catalog, the management activity comprising at least one of;

recommending one or more services in the service catalog and coupling two or more services in the service catalog;

determine, based on the analysis, that the received metadata is insufficient; and

generate a signal to gather additional metadata within a time period if the metadata is determined to be insufficient.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the received metadata comprises multi-dimensional vector information about one or more services.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising computer readable program code configured to analyze the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity by comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold, and, if the multi-dimensional vector information exceeds the threshold, recommending the one or more services associated with the multi-dimensional vector information.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein comparing the multi-dimensional vector information to the threshold further comprises at least one of:

comparing a magnitude of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold and comparing a projection of the multi-dimensional vector information to a threshold.

25. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising computer readable program code configured to analyze the metadata to determine whether to perform a management activity by determining a degree of coupling for two or more of the services associated with the metadata.