Enterprise application mapping tool and datastore with target state dimension

• US 7,694,308 B1
• Filed: 07/15/2005
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Park, Paul H., Mullinnix, Robert A., Dickson, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho; Andy
• Application Number:
  US11/182,266
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/312, 715/203, 715/204, 715/205
• US Class Current: 719/312
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A system for representing the state of an enterprise software architecture is disclosed. The system comprises a datastore that contains a plurality of attributes of applications and of interfaces, including a state attribute. The system also comprises a plurality of stencils operable to define a graphic. The stencils are each associated with a script: that links back to the datastore, an application stencil operable to define an application graphic and associated with an application stencil script and an interface stencil operable to define an interface graphic and associated with an interface stencil. The system also comprises a template operable to define a drawing of an enterprise software architecture using the stencils.

Claims

1. A system for representing the state of an enterprise software architecture, comprising:

a datastore operable to contain a plurality of attributes of applications and a plurality of attributes of interfaces, wherein the attributes of applications and the attributes of interfaces include a state attribute;

a plurality of stencils each operable to define a graphic;

an application stencil script associated with the stencils operable to provide a link from an application graphic to an associated application in the datastore, the application graphic defined using one of the stencils;

an interface stencil script associated with the stencils operable to provide a link from an interface graphic to an associated interface in the datastore, the interface graphic defined using one of the stencils; and

a template operable to define a drawing of an enterprise software architecture using the stencils.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphics are selected from the group consisting of the application graphic, the interface graphic, an application group graphic, a component graphic, a database graphic, an integrated datastore graphic, a data warehouse graphic, and a functional domain graphic.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein values of the state attribute include target state architecture, niche, eliminate, and retire.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein values of the state attribute include improve, transform, integrate, consolidate, and continue.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the stencils and template are customized from an off-the-shelf drawing tool.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the off-the-shelf drawing tool is Microsoft Visio.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the application stencil script and the interface stencil script are written using a Visual Basic Scripting language.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with applications further include an application identity, an ownership, and a year of retirement.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the ownership includes a name of an individual and their title.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the attributes associated with the interfaces further include a technology, an interface direction, a content, an originating application identity, a terminating application identity, a begin use year, and an end use year.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the attribute values of the technology include java messaging service, java remote method invocation, MSQueue, web services, and common object request broker architecture.

12. A computer implemented tool, comprising:

a datastore containing a plurality of application entries and a plurality of interface entries, each application entry including attributes associated with the application, each interface entry including attributes associated with the interface;

a plurality of stencils including a first stencil operable to illustrate an application, a second stencil operable to illustrate an interface, the first and second stencils associated with a script operable to retrieve information from the datastore; and

a drawing template operable to compose a drawing of an enterprise software architecture based in part on the plurality of stencils, the drawing template to receive inputs identifying interconnections among the applications and interfaces based on the stencils and defining attributes of the application and the interface, and to optionally display the application and the interface based on a date point-of-view attribute.

13. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the stencils include a plurality of domain and functional areas based on an enhanced telecommunications operation map.

14. The computer implemented tool of claim 13, wherein the stencils include an application stencil, an interface stencil, an application group stencil, an application database stencil, an integrated datastore stencil, a data warehouse stencil, and a function domain stencil.

15. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the application attributes include a deployment year, a retirement year, and a disposition, wherein the disposition includes a retire state, an eliminate state, a consolidate state, a niche state, and a target state architecture state, wherein the interface attributes include a interface identification, an ordered pair of application identifications, a technology identification, a key data, a begin year, and an end year.

16. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the application attributes include a deployment year, a retirement year, and a disposition, wherein the disposition includes an improve state, a transform state, an integrate sate, a consolidate state, and a continue state, wherein the interface attributes include a interface identification, an ordered pair of application identifications, a technology identification, a key data, a begin year, and an end year.

17. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the drawing template is operable to display a first architecture of an enterprise based on a first date attribute of applications and interfaces and a second architecture of the enterprise based on a second date attribute of applications and interfaces.

18. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the script associated with the stencils are written using a Visual Basic scripting language.

19. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the application attributes include an ownership attribute that identifies an individual and their title.

20. The computer implemented tool of claim 12, wherein the template is enabled by a Microsoft Visio drawing computer enabled tool.