Wizard for use generating a services repository using a target services roadmap

• US 7,630,965 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2005
• Issued: 12/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Erickson, Richard R., Polston, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Pannala, Sathyanarayan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Quader, Fazlul
• Application Number:
  US11/275,234
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A software wizard for interacting with a user to build a repository of services, a system for building a repository of services, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) repository of services, a method of building a repository of services and various other embodiments associated with the repository are disclosed. The method relates to a method of building a repository of services using a target services roadmap. The method comprises receiving from a user an identification of an implemented service and zero or more target services and mapping the implemented service to the zero or more target services. The target services and/or mapped implemented services are added to the repository.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of operating a software wizard for use in building a repository of services using a target services roadmap, the wizard interacting with a user by the method comprising:

receiving from the user an identification of an implemented service in a service-oriented architecture repository and zero or more target services the zero or more target services defining a set of services the user desires to implement but that does not exist when the identification is received;

wherein the service-oriented architecture repository places services within a taxonomy of domains and subgroups and enables new features and product architectures and solution designs to view, specify and build out the service-oriented target services in parallel; and

building a repository of services by mapping the implemented service to the zero or more target services and to the target services roadmap.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the target services roadmap comprises an abstractly-described listing of functional services.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the listing of functional services relate to the definition of implemented services and target services comprises at least one of:

service name, service description, service version, host system, taxonomy, target/implemented service identification, comments, operations including operation name, operation description, operation parameters including parameter name, parameter description, in/out/in-out type, required/optional/conditional designation, data domain, URL linkage to data dictionary, middlewares, interface definition documents associated with each middleware, clients, interface agreements associated with each client, contacts, and dependent services.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the listing of functional services further comprises at least one of:

service phase, operation phase and relation to a target service.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the taxonomy comprises a domain and a subgroup and optionally an eTOM Vertical and Level 1/Level 2/Level 3 eTOM Process specification.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the implemented service goes through phases and different versions comprising development, production and deprecation.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the wizard further interacts with the user by:

receiving from a user an edit of one of the implemented service or a target service within the target services roadmap.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of mapping the implemented service to zero or more target services in the target service roadmap further comprises:

mapping the implemented service to zero or more target services based on functional correspondence.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein if a target service or services is specified, then the method further comprises mapping each operation in the implemented service to zero or at most one operation in the target service(s).

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the implemented service and a target service associated with the target roadmap are associated with a dashboard of management information combining data collected at runtime with data stored in the repository to report on at least one of:

service operation characteristics and service-oriented architecture program effectiveness including target services offered by applications and domains, implemented services offered by applications and domains, percent of target services complete and amount of service reuse by service and domains.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the implemented service and target services associated with the target services roadmap are associated with an arbitrary taxonomy.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the implemented or target service is defined by specifying at least one of:

the HRID of the person defining the implemented service, a taxonomy domain, a taxonomy subgroup, an optional eTOM taxonomy, a service name, a service description, a version, a host OSS system, a specification of whether the service is a target service or implemented service, a development phase if an implemented service, contacts, comments, one or more operations including their data parameters, one or more middlewares and associated interface artifacts, clients and interface agreements.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein, when defined, globally unique service and operation IDs are assigned for target services and/or the implemented service.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the wizard interacts with the user by presenting options to the user to edit any of the entered information associated with the implemented service and target services.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the listed parameters provides a drop-down menu to the user for further selection of features associated with the parameter, and at least one of the listed parameters provides a pop-up screen to lookup information linked from other systems of record.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the wizard further interacting with the user by validating received information from the user for the implemented service.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the wizard further interacting with the user by:

for both target services and the implemented service, validating a form associated with receiving from the user information associated with either a target service or the implemented service.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the wizard further interacts with the user by:

determining whether the implemented service name has the same name as a target service within the same part domain and subgroup taxonomy.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the wizard further interacts with the user by:

engaging in a dialog with the user to obtain input associated with the listing of functional services.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the wizard further:

adding the target service or mapped implemented service to the repository.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein once implemented services have been defined, the implemented services will be viewed and reused on new feature and product solutions.