Automated system and method for service and cost architecture modeling of enterprise systems

• US 7,783,468 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2006
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X-Act Science Inc.
• Original Assignee: Accretive Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Blunt, Jonathan, Desmichels, Marc, Spelman, Guy, Abu el Ata, Nabil A., Drucbert, Annie
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saxena; Akash
• Application Number:
  US11/397,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20060241931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,604 Days
• Field of Search: 703/22, 703/2, 705/11, 705/348
• US Class Current: 703/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• 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: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

An automated system and method is provided for system architects to model enterprise-wide architectures of information systems. From an initial model of a proposed system architecture, performance metrics are modeled and compared against a set of user-defined corporate and business requirements, including cost, quality of service and throughput. For unacceptable metrics, modifications to the system architecture are determined and proposed to the system architect. If accepted, the model of the system architecture is automatically modified and modeled again. Once the modeled performance metrics satisfy the corporate and business requirements, a detailed description of the system architecture derived from the model is output. The model of the system architecture also enables a business ephermeris or precalculated table cross referencing enterprise situation and remedy to be formed. A rules engine employs the business ephemeris and provides indications to the enterprise user for optimizing or modifying components of the enterprise system architecture.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for modeling information system architecture of an enterprise, comprising:

obtaining a business process design, the business process design describing a plurality of business processes and defining a set of corporate requirements and business service requirements for each business process;

constructing a multi-layer mathematical model of architecture of an information system of the enterprise, the information system architecture supporting the business process design, layers of the multi-layer model comprising a business layer, an application layer, and a technology layer;

modeling performance metrics for each layer of the multi-layer model of the information system architecture, said modeling including dimensions of cost, quality of service and throughput;

from said modeled performance metrics, producing a business ephemeris having a predetermined lookup table cross referencing state of the enterprise information system architecture to remedy, the state being a plurality of data points associated with the mathematical model at a given time, the data points including quality of service, cost and throughput, the remedy being a suggested modification to the information system architecture responsive to the associated state; and

monitoring performance of the information system architecture for on-line and off-line analysis of operations of the information system architecture against the business ephemeris.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the modeled performance metrics with the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements for each business process, said comparing producing respective indications of unacceptable performance metrics of one or more business processes that do not satisfy the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements defined for them based on the produced indications;

determining modifications to the system architecture based on a selected state and associated remedy of the business ephemeris, the selected state having at least one data point corresponding to the unacceptable performance metrics;

proposing the modifications to the information system architecture;

modeling updated performance metrics for each layer of the model of the information system architecture with the proposed modifications;

comparing the updated performance metrics with the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements for each business process; and

outputting a description of the system architecture if the updated performance metrics satisfy the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said modeling performance metrics and/or producing a business ephemeris includes quantitative modeling of at least one of a service oriented architecture and a cost architecture.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing the multi-layer mathematical model of the system architecture, comprises:

mapping each business process to a business application component model, each application component model being linked to one or more component models in the application and technology layers, which support the application component model.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein any combination of component models supporting a business process may be substituted to improve unacceptable performance metrics of the business process.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the remedy includes optimizations to the enterprise information system architecture.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the

analysis includes any of cost-based pricing and impact analysis of any combination of cost, quality of service and throughput.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of analyzing the enterprise information system architecture, said analyzing including any combination of:

cost based pricing, real time diagnostics and impact analysis of any combination of cost, quality of service and throughput.

9. A computer system for modeling information system architecture of an enterprise, comprising:

a computer-readable medium;

a computer processor configured to execute the computer-readable medium;

a business process design module, implemented in the computer-readable medium, for describing a plurality of business processes and defining a set of corporate requirements and business service requirements for each business process;

a construction module responsive to the business process design module, the construction module responsive to the business process design module and constructing a multi-layer mathematical model of an information system architecture of the enterprise, the layers of the multi-layer model comprising a business layer, an application layer, and a technology layer, and the construction module modeling performance metrics for each layer of the multi-layer model including modeling cost, quality of service and throughput; and

a situation-remedy table formed based on the modeled performance metrics, the table being a predetermined lookup table cross referencing state of the enterprise information system architecture to remedy, the state being a plurality of data points associated with the mathematical model at a given time, the data points including quality of service, cost and throughput, the remedy being a suggested modification to the system architecture responsive to the associated state, the table enabling analysis of the enterprise information system architecture.

10. A computer system as claimed in claim 9 further comprising:

a comparison module coupled to receive the modeled performance metrics and the business process design, the comparison module comparing the modeled performance metrics with the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements for each business process and determining unacceptable performance metrics of one or more business processes that do not satisfy the set of corporate requirements and business service requirements defined for them;

a rule-based modification engine, the rule-based engine determining modifications to the system architecture in order to improve the unacceptable performance metrics determined by the comparison module, wherein (a) the construction module further models updated performance metrics for each layer of the model of the system architecture with the proposed modifications, and (b) the comparison module further compares the updated performance metrics with the set of business service requirements for each business process; and

an output module for outputting a description of the system architecture if the updated performance metrics satisfy the set of business service requirements.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein:

the construction module further identifies supporting component models in the application and technology layers that support the one or more business processes having unacceptable performance metrics;

the comparison module further evaluates the performance metrics of the supporting component models in order to identify one or more supporting component models having unacceptable performance metrics; and

the rule-based engine further searches a data store for modifications to improve the unacceptable performance metrics of the one or more supporting component models.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the modifications to improve the unacceptable performance metrics of the one or more supporting component models include replacement of the one or more supporting component models with alternate component models.

13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the construction module maps each business process to an application component model, each application component model being linked to one or more component models in the application and technology layers, which support the application component model.

14. The computer system of claim 9 wherein the table cross references state of the enterprise information system architecture to a remedy wherein remedy includes optimizations or modifications to the enterprise information system architecture.

15. The computer system of claim 9 wherein the situation-remedy table is in terms of cost, quality of service and throughput with respect to each other.

16. The computer system of claim 9 wherein the table enables any combination of online and off-line analysis, including:

cost based pricing, real time diagnostics and impact analysis of any combination of cost, quality of service and throughput.

17. The computer system of claim 9 wherein the multi-layer mathematical model quantitatively models a service architecture and a cost architecture of the enterprise information system.

18. Computer apparatus for modeling enterprise information system architecture, comprising:

a computer-readable medium;

means, implemented in the computer-readable medium, for receiving a business process design, the business process design describing a plurality of business processes and defining a set of business service requirements for each business process;

means for constructing a multi-layer mathematical model of information system architecture supporting the business process design, the layers of the multi-layer model comprising a business layer, an application layer, and a technology layer, each layer having cost, quality of service and throughput dimensions;

means for modeling performance metrics for each layer of the multi-layer model of the information system architecture;

means for comparing the modeled performance metrics against a business ephemeris having a predetermined lookup table cross referencing state of the enterprise information system architecture to remedy, the state being a plurality of data points associated with the mathematical model at a given time, the data points including quality of service, cost and throughput, the remedy being a suggested modification to the information system architecture responsive to the associated state; and

means for modifying the system architecture in a manner improving unacceptable performance metrics of one or more business processes that do not satisfy the set of business service requirements defined for them.

19. Apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein the business ephemeris is formed from the modeled performance metrics, the business ephemeris enabling online and off-line analysis of operations of the information system architecture.

20. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-readable medium;

a set of computer operating instructions embodied on the medium for modeling an enterprise information system architecture, including instructions for;

providing a business process design, the business process design describing a plurality of business processes and defining a set of corporate requirements and business requirements for each business process;

constructing a multi-layer mathematical model of an information system architecture supporting the business process design, the layers of the multi-layer model comprising a business layer, an application layer, and a technology layer;

modeling performance metrics for each layer of the multi-layer model of the information system architecture, including cost, quality of service and latency; and

from said modeled performance metrics, producing business ephemeris for analysis of the enterprise information system architecture, the business ephemeris having a predetermined lookup table cross referencing state of the enterprise information system architecture to remedy, the state being a plurality of data points associated with the mathematical model at a given time, the data points including quality of service, cost and throughput, the remedy being a suggested modification to the information system architecture responsive to the associated state.