Method for modeling business transformation

• US 7,703,071 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2006
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kuester, Jochen M, Hauser, Rainer F, Wahler, Michael, Vanhatalo, Jussi, Koehler, Jana, Ryndina, Ksenia
• Primary Examiner(s): DAS, CHAMELI
• Application Number:
  US11/403,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20070245297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 717/100, 717/101, 717/102, 717/103, 717/104, 717/107, 717/108, 717/110, 717/112, 707/201, 709/223
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method for modeling business transformation includes steps of: constructing a first analysis model based on at least one legacy-business-process-model; and analyzing the first analysis model in conjunction with at least one business-process-reference-model. The method further includes deriving a second analysis model in response to analyzing the first analysis model in conjunction with the at least one business-process-reference-model and refining the second analysis model to obtain a design model.

Claims

1. A method for modeling business transformation, the method comprising steps of:

1) constructing a first analysis model comprising an IBM WebSphere Business (WB) notation, based on at least one legacy-business-process-model, wherein the first analysis model is a business process model representing a partitioning of a first legacy-business-process-model comprising an event-driven process chains notation into a plurality of sub-processes and a plurality of tasks, the constructing step comprising;

a) grouping a plurality of tasks of an initial WB model into a plurality of process components, wherein the initial WB model is obtained from the first legacy-business-process-model, wherein the plurality of tasks are logically interrelated, comprising performing a componentization on the initial WB model, the componentization comprising giving a hierarchical structure by identifying the plurality of process components of the initial WB model;

and

b) adjusting at least one of a plurality of control flow and the plurality of process components of the initial WB model;

2) analyzing the first analysis model in conjunction with at least one business-process-reference-model, comprising;

a) comparing a plurality of modeling objectives and a plurality of process boundaries corresponding to the first analysis model and a plurality of reference modeling objectives and a plurality of reference process boundaries corresponding to the at least one business-process-reference-model; and

b) creating a plurality of semantic correspondences between the first analysis model and the at least one business-process-reference-model in response to comparing, comprising;

i) determining a plurality of task correspondences between the plurality of tasks in the first analysis model and the plurality of tasks in the at least one business-process-reference-model, the plurality of task correspondences being at least one of a one-to-one correspondence, one-to-zero correspondence, zero-to-one correspondence and one-to-many correspondence;

ii) identifying a content relationship between the plurality of tasks in the first analysis model and the plurality of tasks in the at least one business-process-reference-model, the content relationship being at least one of an included type, a comprises type, an equal type and an overlapping type; and

iii) generating a relationship between at least one sub-process in the first analysis model and at least one sub-process in the at least one business-process-reference-model;

3) deriving a second analysis model in response to analyzing the first analysis model in conjunction with the at least one business-process-reference-model, comprising;

a) initializing the second analysis model based on the at least one business-process-reference-model to obtain an initial second analysis model;

b) modifying the initial second analysis model, the modifying step comprising;

i) comparing a content of the plurality of tasks in the first analysis model with a content of the plurality of tasks in the initial second analysis model based on a plurality of semantic correspondences; and

ii) adapting a content of the plurality of tasks in the initial second analysis model based on the comparing step;

c) aligning a plurality of sub-processes of the initial second analysis model in accordance with a plurality of sub-processes of the first analysis model based on the plurality of semantic correspondences;

d) adjusting a control flow corresponding to the initial second analysis model based on at least one of the plurality of modeling objectives and the plurality of process boundaries; and

4) refining the second analysis model to obtain a design model, wherein the refining step comprises applying a plurality of model transformations applied in a form of a model transformation plug-in, wherein the plurality of model transformations transform the second analysis model to the design model;

comprising

a) defining a design object model;

b) assigning a data container along a control flow of the second analysis model, the data container enriching the second analysis model with a data flow;

c) altering a plurality of data-based decision conditions in the second analysis model; and

d) applying a plurality of model transformations, wherein the plurality of model transformations transform the second analysis model to obtain the design model.