Process description apparatus and method, and process classification method

• US 6,968,533 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2000
• Issued: 11/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Masamichi, Ueda, Manabu, Hayashi, Kazuto
• Primary Examiner(s): Knight, Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bell, Meltin
• Application Number:
  US09/723,239
• Time in Patent Office: 1,820 Days
• Field of Search: 706/59, 706/55, 706/20, 706/46, 706/48, 706/61, 703/2, 345/776, 717/100, 717/106
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

A process is described based on activities and dependence relationship between the activities. The dependence relationship is described based on resource and coordination method. An epistemological ground is set corresponding to the domain of the process and other components of the process are described for each epistemological ground. The epistemological grounds are classified according to abstract-concrete relationship, inclusion relationship, cluster relationship, etc., and are retrieved. The activity, dependence relationship, and resource also have classification structures. Setting an epistemological ground or using a global epistemological ground, the activity, dependence relationship, and resource are defined and the process is described and analyzed.

Claims

1. An automated process description apparatus for describing a process using a model wherein a plurality of activities have dependence relationships via a resource, the process description apparatus comprising:

means for storing a plurality of definitions of epistemological grounds for domains of the process to be described;

means for storing attributes of the activities of the process to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for storing attributes of the resource of the processes to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for storing attributes of the dependence relationships of the process to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process;

means for analyzing and describing the process from the attributes of the activities, the attributes of the dependence relationship, and the attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

means for determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

means for repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

means for characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R; and

means for displaying the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationship as figure elements,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, resource, and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

2. The automated process description apparatus of claim 1, further including means for displaying the epistemological grounds as a figure element.

3. The automated process description apparatus of claim 2, wherein the figure element of the epistemological grounds surround the figure element of the activities and the figure element of the dependence relationship.

4. The automated process description apparatus of claim 1, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the epistemological grounds; and

means for displaying at least a part of the stored classification structures of the epistemological grounds.

5. The automated process description apparatus of claim 1, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships; and

means for displaying at least a part of each of the stored classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships.

6. The automated process description method of claim 5, wherein the epistemological ground is a component for describing the purpose and course of process description in a target domain in which the process to be described exists, and the contents including information concerning definition of the three components of activity, resource, and dependence relationship are described.

7. The automated process description apparatus of claim 1, wherein the epistemological grounds contain one epistemological ground set by default.

8. An automated process description apparatus for describing a process using a model wherein a plurality of activities have dependence relationships via a resource, the process description apparatus comprising:

means for specifying an epistemological grounds for a domain of the process to be described;

means for storing attributes of the activities of the process to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for storing attributes of the resource of the process to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for storing attributes of the dependence relationship of the process to be described for each of the epistemological grounds;

means for inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process;

means for analyzing and describing the process from the attributes of the activities, the attributes of the dependence relationship, and the attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

means for determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

means for repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

means for characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R; and

means for displaying at least one of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships as a figure element,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, resource, and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

9. The automated process description apparatus of claim 8, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the epistemological grounds; and

means for displaying at least a part of the stored classification structures of the epistemological grounds.

10. The automated process description apparatus of claim 8, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationship; and

means for displaying at least a part of each of the stored classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships.

11. The automated process description method of claim 10, wherein the epistemological ground is a component for describing the purpose and course of process description in a target domain in which the process to be described exists, and the contents including information concerning definition of the three components of activity, resource, and dependence relationship are described.

12. The automated process description apparatus of claim 8, wherein the epistemological grounds contain one epistemological ground set by default.

13. An automated process description apparatus for describing a process using a model wherein a plurality of activities have dependence relationships via a resource, the process description apparatus comprising:

means for storing constraints of the process activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships under a predetermined domain identifier for a domain of the process to be described;

means for assigning a domain identifier to the process to be described;

means for describing attributes of the activities of the process to be described under constraints of the assigned domain identifier;

means for describing attributes of the resource of the process to be described under constraints of the assigned domain identifier;

means for describing attributes of the dependence relationships of the process to be described under constraints of the assigned domain identifier;

means for inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process;

means for analyzing the process from the attributes of the activities, the attributes of the dependence relationship, and the attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds; and

means for determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

means for repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

means for characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R; and

means for displaying at least one of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships as a figure element,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, resource, and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

14. The automated process description apparatus of claim 13, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the epistemological grounds; and

means for displaying at least a part of the stored classification structures of the epistemological grounds.

15. The automated process description apparatus of claim 13, further including:

means for storing classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationship; and

means for displaying at least a part of each of the stored classification structures of the activities, the resource, and the dependence relationships.

16. The automated process description method of claim 15, wherein the epistemological ground is a component for describing the purpose and course of process description in a target domain in which the process to be described exists, and the contents including information concerning definition of the three components of activity, resource, and dependence relationship are described.

17. The automated process description apparatus of claim 13, wherein the epistemological grounds contain one epistemological ground set by default.

25. The automated process description method of claim 15, wherein a single global epistemological ground independent of a domain exists and definition of the activity, the resource, and the dependence relationship as initial values independent of the domain is described as attributes of the global epistemological ground.

18. An automated process description method executed by a computer for describing a process with activities, dependence relationships, a resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the process description method comprising:

describing a target of the real world, to be described as a model of the process in which a plurality of activities operate having dependence relationships via a resource;

describing a course and purpose of a process description proper to a target domain in an epistemological ground as constraints in description of the three components of the activity, the resource, and the dependence relationships;

means for inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process;

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied; and

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, resource, and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

19. The automated process description method of claim 18, further comprising:

describing the dependence relationships based on the resource handled between the activities; and

classifying the dependence relationships into types according to six superordinate classes of resource distribution, resource binding, resource transfer, resource binding and distribution, resource transfer and distribution, and resource binding and transfer.

20. The automated process description method of claim 18, further comprising:

describing a coordination method of coordinating the dependence relationship between the activities as an attribute of the dependence relationship.

21. The automated process description method of claim 20, wherein in the dependence relationship, if more than one coordination method exists, the contents including information concerning comparison of the coordination methods are described.

22. The automated process description method of claim 18, wherein the activity is a component for describing the operation forming a process, the contents including an activity name, the resource involved in the activity, and the details of the activity are described, and the details of the activity are described as the process.

23. The automated process description method of claim 18, wherein the dependence relationship is component for describing the relationship between the activities, the contents including the dependence relationship between the activities when attention is focused on the resource transferred between the activities, and a coordination method of coordinating the dependence relationship are described, and the coordination method is also described as process.

24. The automated process description method of claim 18, wherein the resource is a component for describing the resource transferred between the activities and the contents including a resource name and the nature of the resource are described.

26. An automated process classification method executed by a computer for classifying processes described with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

classifying the three components of the activity, the resource, and the dependence relationship according to various classification structures including meaningful abstract and concrete (Is-a) relationship inclusion (Part-of) relationship indicating composition; and

managing cluster relationship proper to each field and the classification structures as attributes of the epistemological grounds using each component,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

27. An automated process classification method executed by a computer for classifying processes described with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain,

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological ground is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

classifying the epistemological grounds according to various classification structures including meaningful abstract and concrete (Is-a) relationship, inclusion (Part-of) relationship indicating composition; and

managing cluster relationship proper to each field and the classification structures as attributes of a global epistemological ground.

28. An automated process classification method executed by a computer for classifying processes described with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

classifying the four components of the activity, the dependence relationship, the resource, and the epistemological ground according to various classification structures including history information of creation histories, change histories, reference histories, and deletion histories; and

managing the classification structures as attributes of tile epistemological ground using each component.

29. An automated process classification method executed by a computer for classifying processes described with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

classifying characteristic processes used in specific patterns, such as those frequently used or the well-worn means most frequently used under a specific condition, according to various classification structures including the cluster relationship; and

managing the classification structures as attributes of the epistemological ground using each components.

30. An automated process knowledge database apparatus for classifying and retaining process description data describing processes with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components according to classification structures, the process knowledge database apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting the process description data;

retrieval means for retrieving the process description data;

edit means for editing the process description data;

database means for managing the process description data, characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological ground, determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied, and repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

display means for displaying the process description data; and

storage means for storing the process description data.

31. An automated process retrieval method for retrieving a process using a process knowledge database apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting the process description data;

retrieval means for retrieving the process description data;

edit means for editing the process description data;

database means for managing the process description data, characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds, determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied, and repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

display means for displaying the process description data; and

storage means for storing the process description data, the method comprising;

retrieving specific information, similar information, peripheral information, target information from the various classification structures with the types, values, or their combinations contained in the attribute information of the activity, the dependence relationship, the resource, and the epistemological grounds as retrieval keys.

32. An automated process design method executed by a computer for designing a new process by retrieving information of a similar process description to the whole or part of the process to be designed using a retrieval method of claim 31, and correcting or expanding a found process model.

33. An automated process analysis method executed by a computer for analyzing a process with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the process analysis method comprising:

inputting a definition of an epistemological ground for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

analyzing and describing the process from the activity, dependence relationship, and resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds; and

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until it is determined that the end condition is satisfied.

34. An automated process analysis method executed by a computer for analyzing a process with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied; and

describing the process, if the epistemological grounds concerning a domain of the process to be analyzed already exists, while the epistemological grounds is changed gradually based on the history of analysis conducted in the past using the epistemological grounds, whereby the process analysis is advanced.

35. An automated process analysis method executed by a computer for analyzing a process with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

inputting a definition of the epistemological grounds for classifying the process, wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain;

characterizing an E-R model, wherein E and R of the E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R;

analyzing and describing the process from attributes of the activities, attributes of the dependence relationship, and attributes of the resource of the process based on the defined epistemological grounds;

determining whether or not an end condition of description defined in the epistemological grounds is satisfied;

repeating the inputting and analyzing steps until the end condition is determined to be satisfied;

editing the history of change of the epistemological grounds made in the past as required, if the epistemological grounds concerning the process to be analyzed already exists;

retaining gradual change of the epistemological grounds in the epistemological grounds history as methodology of process analysis; and

analyzing and describing the process following the gradual change of the epistemological grounds, whereby the process analysis is advanced.

36. An automated process display method executed by a computer for displaying a process described with activity, dependence relationship, resource, and epistemological grounds as four components, the method comprising:

representing a background area including an expanded E-R model, wherein E (entity) and R (relationship) of an E-R model are related to activity and dependence relationship respectively and that a polynomial link of n to m is allowed in R, and a model represented by the expanded E-R model, in a background color or by area contour lines as the epistemological grounds,

wherein the epistemological grounds includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.

37. An automated classification structure display method executed by a computer, comprising:

representing a background area including an expanded E-R model characterized in that E (entity) and R (relationship) of an E-R model are related to classification target and abstract-concrete (Is-a) relationship, inclusion (Part-of) relationship, or cluster relationship respectively and a classification structure represented by the expanded E-R model as an epistemological ground,

wherein the epistemological ground includes constraint information concerning definitions of the activity, the resource and the dependence relationship, and sets a purpose or a course of the process to be described on the basis of the domain.