Method and framework for model specification, consistency checking and coordination of business processes

• US 7,503,032 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2001
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gallego, Guillermo, Nayak, Nitin R., Leung, Ying T., Ramaswamy, Sanjay E., Bhaskaran, Kumar, Huang, Ying
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Francis; Mark P.
• Application Number:
  US09/881,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,825 Days
• Field of Search: 717100-162, 713/176, 713/175, 705/10, 705/7, 707/1
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities

Abstract

A computer implemented system analysis and design method for use in a complex business environment characterized by a set of tightly linked business processes captures in a framework a world view of a business decision and/or a business application software system. A world view is defined by business objectives, constraints, assumptions, data, and underlying model used in business decision and/or the application software system. The framework is used to specify and document each business decision and/or business application software system in the complex environment. A BDML (Business Decision Markup Language) is used to implement the framework for specifying the world view of a business decision and/or a business application software system. A BDML processor comprises a syntax processor that checks the syntax correctness and syntax consistency within an individual and between different documents written in BDML, a logic processor that checks logical consistency between different documents written in BDML, in terms of the business objectives, constraints, assumptions, data, and underlying model among the different documents, and a knowledge-based processor including a knowledge base of business decisions, common choices for their decision support models and commercially available decision support systems, the knowledge-based processor providing suggestions for a set of BDML documents to improve consistency using the knowledge base.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system analysis and design method for use in a complex business environment by a set of linked business processes, comprising steps of:

providing an (eXtensible Markup Language) XML-based BDML (Business Decision Markup Language) framework representing a world view of each of a plurality of business decisions associated with business processes from among the set of linked business processes, the BDML world view including a business objective tag definition for quantitatively representing a business objective, constraints tag definition, assumptions tag definition, data tag definition, and an underlying model tag definition for identifying a business decision mathematical algorithm;

capturing in the BDML framework a world view of a plurality of business decisions that occur in the set of linked business processes, wherein the capturing includes specifying and documenting each of the plurality of business decisions as a BDML portable document structured according to said XML-based BDML framework, having a business objectives tag quantitatively representing the decision'"'"'s business objective, constraints tag representing the decision'"'"'s constraints, assumptions tag representing the decision'"'"'s assumptions, data tag representing data related to the decision, and an underlying model tag identifying the business decision mathematical algorithm applied in the decision;

checking for logical consistency between different business decision based on the decision'"'"'s respective BDML portable documents and their respective said tags.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

constructing a BDML knowledge base of business decisions and processes within an organization, based on the BDML documents representing said business decisions.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a BDML document representing, according to said BDML framework, a functional specification of a business application software system; and

generating a BDML document representing, according to said BDML framework, a world view of a technical research paper in the area of business decisions and its findings.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a BDML processor, wherein said documenting includes forming the BDML documents representing said world view of said business decision to be machine readable by the BDML processor and by human users.