Investigating business processes

• US 7,610,211 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Issued: 10/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sayal, Mehmet, Casati, Fabio, Shan, Ming-Chien
• Primary Examiner(s): DeCady; Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERTSON, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US10/177,273
• Publication Number:
  US 20030236677A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,685 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/7.27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• 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 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods of investigating business processes are described. These systems and methods support real-time monitoring, analysis, management, and optimization of business processes. A graphical user interface enables users to apply data warehousing and data mining techniques to business process execution data and to visualize process execution data along multiple configurable dimensions and at different configurable levels of granularity.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method of investigating one or more business processes each involving a respective set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources, the method comprising:

providing an interface that enables a user to (i) select a process entity from any of one or more of the business processes, one or more of the services, and one or more of the resources, (ii) select a statistic from a set of multiple statistics, and (iii) select a perspective derived from one or more attribute dimensions of the user-selected process entity;

querying a business process data warehouse comprising records derived from process execution data generated during execution of one or more instantiations of the one or more business processes, wherein the querying comprises deriving the user-selected statistic from ones of the records comprising data relating to the user-selected process entity and the user-selected perspective; and

on a display visualizing the user-selected statistic presented across the user-selected perspective;

wherein the interface enables the user to define the perspective in terms of a taxonomy comprising multiple categories each of which defines a respective Boolean condition on the records of the business process data warehouse, the interface enables the user to (i) label the taxonomy, (ii) label each of the categories, and (iii) specify each of the conditions on the records, and the querying comprises classifying ones of the records of the business process data warehouse into the categories of the taxonomy based on the respective Boolean conditions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to specify the Boolean conditions in terms of any of:

number of activations of a node of any of the business processes;

assignment of a node of any of the business processes to any of the resources;

duration of a node of any of the business processes;

duration of any of the business processes;

a value of data items at instantiation time of any of the business processes, completion time of any of the business processes, or after execution of a node of any of the business processes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to select the statistic from each of:

a count;

running time; and

a standard deviation of running time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying comprises generating a query on the records of the business process data warehouse based upon the user-selected process entity, the user-selected statistic, and the user-selected perspective.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the querying comprises generating the query with a SELECT clause defining the user-selected statistic and a FROM clause identifying the ones of the records relating to the user-selected process entity and the user-selected perspective.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to select the process entity from each of:

one or more of the businesses processes;

one or more of the services; and

one or more of the resources.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to select the perspective from each of:

a time-based perspective;

one or more of the services;

one or more of the resources;

an initiator of any of the business processes;

a node of any of the business processes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to define the statistic in terms of an attribute dimension of one or more of the business processes.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the interface enables the user to (i) label the statistic, (ii) select one of the business processes, and (iii) select the attribute dimension of the selected business process.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the user to select one or more restrictions, and the querying comprises filtering the records of the business process data warehouse based upon the one or more user-selected restrictions.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the interface enables the user to select the one or more restrictions from each of:

one or more of the services;

an initiator of any of the business processes;

one or more of the resources;

a node of any of the business processes; and

a time period.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring an execution of an instance of any of the business processes, wherein the monitoring comprises detecting occurrences of one or more specified conditions during execution of the business process instance.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the monitoring comprises detecting occurrence of an alert condition during execution of the monitored business process instance.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the interface enables the user to (i) define the alert condition in terms of a detection rule applicable to process execution data generated during execution of the business process instance, and (ii) associate the alert condition with an action that is triggered in response to detection of the alert condition.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the interface enables the user to associate the alert condition with an action that generates a notification in response to detection of the alert condition.

16. A computer readable medium for investigating one or more business processes each involving a respective set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources, the computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

providing an interface that enables a user to (i) select a process entity from any of one or more of the business processes, one or more of the services, and one or more of the resources, (ii) select a statistic from a set of multiple statistics, and (iii) select a perspective derived from one or more attribute dimensions of the user-selected process entity, wherein the interface enables the user to define the perspective in terms of a taxonomy comprising multiple categories each of which defines a respective Boolean condition on the records of a business process data warehouse comprising records derived from process execution data generated during execution of one or more instantiations of the one or more business processes, and the interface enables the user to (i) label the taxonomy, (ii) label each of the categories, and (iii) specify each of the conditions on the records;

querying the business process data warehouse, wherein the querying comprises deriving the user-selected statistic from ones of the records comprising data relating to the user-selected process entity and the user-selected perspective, wherein the querying comprises classifying ones of the records of the business process data warehouse into the categories of the taxonomy based on the respective Boolean conditions; and

on a display visualizing the user-selected statistic presented across the user-selected perspective.

17. A system for investigating one or more business processes each involving a respective set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources, the system comprising:

a memory storing instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising

prompting a user to (i) select a process entity from any of one or more of the business processes, one or more of the services, and one or more of the resources, (ii) select a statistic from a set of multiple statistics, and (iii) select a perspective derived from an attribute dimension of the user-selected process entity, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to define the perspective in terms of a taxonomy comprising multiple categories each of which defines a respective Boolean condition on the records of a business process data warehouse comprising records derived from process execution data generated during execution of one or more instantiations of the one or more business processes, and in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to (i) label the taxonomy, (ii) label each of the categories, and (iii) specify each of the conditions on the records;

based upon the user-selected process entity, statistic and perspective, querying the business process data warehouse, wherein the querying comprises deriving the user-selected statistic from ones of the records comprising data relating to the user-selected process entity and the user-selected perspective, wherein the querying comprises classifying ones of the records of the business process data warehouse into the categories of the taxonomy based on the respective Boolean conditions; and

on a display visualizing the user-selected statistic presented across the user-selected perspective.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to specify the Boolean conditions in terms of any of:

number of activations of a node of any of the business processes;

assignment of a node of any of the business processes to any of the resources;

duration of a node of any of the business processes;

duration of any of the business processes;

a value of data items at instantiation time of any of the business processes, completion time of any of the business processes, or after execution of a node of any of the business processes.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to select a statistic from each of:

a count;

running time; and

a standard deviation of running time.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to define the statistic in terms of an attribute dimension of one or more of the business processes.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to (i) label the statistic, (ii) select one of the business processes, and (iii) select the attribute dimension of the selected business process.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to select the process entity from each of:

one or more of the businesses processes;

one or more of the services; and

one or more of the resources.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to select the perspective from each of:

a time-based perspective;

one or more of the services;

one or more of the resources;

an initiator of any of the business processes;

a node of any of the business processes.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to select one or more restrictions, and wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to filter the process execution data based upon the one or more user-selected restrictions.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to select the one or more restrictions from each of:

one or more of the services;

an initiator of one or more of the business processes;

one or more of the resources;

a node of any of the business processes; and

a time period.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein in executing the instructions the processor performs operations comprising monitoring execution of an instance of any of the business processes, wherein the monitoring comprises detecting occurrences of one or more specified conditions during execution of the business process instance.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the detecting comprises detecting occurrence of an alert condition during execution of the monitored business process instance.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to (i) define the alert condition in terms of a detection rule applicable to process execution data generated during execution of the business process instance, and (ii) associate the alert condition with an action that is triggered in response to detection of the alert condition.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to associate the alert condition with an action that generates a notification in response detection of the alert condition.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein in executing the instructions the processor prompts the user to associate the alert condition with an action that triggers an activity in the business process instance in response to detection of the alert condition.