Self-healing factory processes in a software factory

• US 8,271,949 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bernardini, Fausto, Chaar, Jarir K., Chee, Yi-Min, Huchel, Joseph P., Jobson, Thomas A. Jr., Oppenheim, Daniel V., Ratakonda, Krishna C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller, Viva
• Application Number:
  US12/183,566
• Publication Number:
  US 20100031090A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,510 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3612 by runtime analysis performance monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for self-healing a software factory are presented. Factory metrics that describe resources and operations within the software factory are collected and analyzed. If the analysis reveals a significant problem within the software factory, then corrective measures are taken and stored, thus enabling the software factory to evolve and improve over time.

Claims

1. A computer-executed method of self-healing a software factory, the computer-executed method comprising:

collecting real time factory metrics through messages on an Enterprise Service Bus in an event driven Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), wherein the monitored metrics include project metrics as well as factory operations, system, business, and performance activities, for a process that is executing within a software factory, wherein the real time factory metrics describe operational patterns of processes within the software factory, and wherein the processes use work packets that are operated upon, by factory resources within the software factory, to create a customized deliverable unit of software for a current project, wherein each work packet constitutes a contractual agreement that governs a relationship among a design center, a software factory governance board, a software factory operations unit, and an assembly line in the software factory, wherein the design center breaks a software project into major functional areas, wherein the software factory governance board determines whether or not to allow the software factory to accept the software project, wherein the software factory operations unit dispatches the software project to the assembly line, wherein the assembly line receives and executes work packets that are specified by the design center to create the customized deliverable unit of software, wherein said each work packet further comprises an exit criteria, and wherein the exit criteria is a checklist for returning said each work packet from the assembly line to the software factory operations unit and for returning the customized deliverable unit of software from a customer to the software factory;

analyzing the real time factory metrics to detect problems that might have occurred during an execution of a work packet, within a software factory component, or across software factory components that are involved in executing a project plan;

determining whether problems detected by the analysis exceed one or more threshold criteria;

in response to the problems detected by the analysis exceeding one or more of the threshold criteria, performing a detailed analysis of the problems by matching each identified problem to one or more specific root causes through an analysis of the factory process building blocks;

in response to determining that a delay caused by waiting for a manual response would result in major disruption to a software factory operation, launching automated recovery measures to correct each identified problem; and

storing results of the automated recovery measures within the software factory in order to improve an operational efficiency of the software factory when used on future projects.

2. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the one or more threshold criteria describe a progress status for servicing a work packet service request.

3. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the one or more threshold criteria further describe how many resources in the software factory are currently being delayed while waiting for an output of a particular work packet.

4. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the one or more threshold criteria further describe how many team members working in the assembly line of the software factory are missing.

5. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the work packet further comprises a header, wherein the header comprises a unique identification number, a description of the work packet, a type description of the work packet, and an identifier of a parent object from which the work packet has inheritance.

6. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the assembly line further utilizes:

a published set of services and a published set of requirements for the assembly line, wherein the published set of services and the published set of requirements for the assembly line are published to the design center, and wherein the published set of services describes what assembly services for assembling work packets are offered by the assembly line, and wherein the published set of requirements describes what execution environment must be used by work packets that are provided by the design center for assembly in the assembly line.

7. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the work packets further comprise governance procedures, standards, reused assets, work packet instructions, integration strategy, schedules, and artifact checklist templates for Input/Output routines.

8. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the assembly line further comprises software that automatically recognizes a project type for a project proposal, and wherein the assembly line assembles the work packets into the customized deliverable unit of software in accordance with the project type that is recognized by the assembly line.

9. The computer-executed method of claim 1, wherein the assembly line and a job shop conduct an integration test, a system test, a system integration test and a performance test of the customized deliverable unit of software, wherein the integration test tests the customized deliverable unit of software for compatibility with a client'"'"'s system, the system test checks the client'"'"'s system to ensure that the client'"'"'s system is operating properly, the system integration test tests for bugs that may arise when the customized deliverable unit of software is integrated into the client'"'"'s system, and the performance test tests the customized deliverable unit of software for defects as it is executing in the client'"'"'s system.

10. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor;

a memory coupled to the data bus; and

a non-transitory computer-usable medium on which is stored computer program code, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured to self-heal a software factory by performing the steps of;

collecting real time factory metrics through messages on an Enterprise Service Bus in an event driven Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), wherein the monitored metrics include project metrics as well as factory operations, system, business, and performance activities, for a process that is executing within a software factory, wherein the real time factory metrics describe operational patterns of processes within the software factory, and wherein the processes use work packets that are operated upon, by factory resources within the software factory, to create a customized deliverable unit of software for a current project, wherein each work packet constitutes a contractual agreement that governs a relationship among a design center, a software factory governance board, a software factory operations unit, and an assembly line in the software factory, wherein the design center breaks a software project into major functional areas, wherein the software factory governance board determines whether or not to allow the software factory to accept the software project, wherein the software factory operations unit dispatches the software project to the assembly line, wherein the assembly line receives and executes work packets that are specified by the design center to create the customized deliverable unit of software, wherein said each work packet further comprises an exit criteria, and wherein the exit criteria is a checklist for returning said each work packet from the assembly line to the software factory operations unit and for returning the customized deliverable unit of software from a customer to the software factory;

analyzing the real time factory metrics to detect problems that might have occurred during an execution of a work packet, within a software factory component, or across software factory components that are involved in executing a project plan;

determining whether problems detected by said analyzing exceed one or more threshold criteria;

in response to the problems detected by said analyzing exceeding one or more of the threshold criteria, performing a detailed analysis of the problems by matching each identified problem to one or more specific root causes through an analysis of the factory process building blocks;

in response to determining that a delay caused by waiting for a manual response would result in major disruption to a software factory operation, launching automated recovery measures to correct each identified problem; and

storing results of the automated recovery measures within the software factory in order to improve an operational efficiency of the software factory when used on future projects.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more threshold criteria describe a progress status for servicing a work packet service request.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more threshold criteria further describe how many resources in the software factory are currently being delayed while waiting for an output of a particular work packet.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the expected ranges one or more threshold criteria further describe how many team members working in an assembly line of the software factory are missing.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program, the computer program comprising computer executable instructions configured for self-healing a software factory by performing the steps of:

collecting real time factory metrics through messages on an Enterprise Service Bus in an event driven Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), wherein the monitored metrics include project metrics as well as factory operations, system, business, and performance activities, for a process that is executing within a software factory, wherein the real time factory metrics describe operational patterns of processes within the software factory, and wherein the processes use work packets that are operated upon, by factory resources within the software factory, to create a customized deliverable unit of software for a current project, wherein each work packet constitutes a contractual agreement that governs a relationship among a design center, a software factory governance board, a software factory operations unit, and an assembly line in the software factory, wherein the design center breaks a software project into major functional areas, wherein the software factory governance board determines whether or not to allow the software factory to accept the software project, wherein the software factory operations unit dispatches the software project to the assembly line, wherein the assembly line receives and executes work packets that are specified by the design center to create the customized deliverable unit of software, wherein said each work packet further comprises an exit criteria, and wherein the exit criteria is a checklist for returning said each work packet from the assembly line to the software factory operations unit and for returning the customized deliverable unit of software from a customer to the software factory;

analyzing the real time factory metrics to detect problems that might have occurred during an execution of a work packet, within a software factory component, or across software factory components that are involved in executing a project plan;

determining whether problems detected by said analyzing exceed one or more threshold criteria;

in response to the problems detected by said analyzing exceeding one or more of the threshold criteria, performing a detailed analysis of the problems by matching each identified problem to one or more specific root causes through an analysis of the factory process building blocks;

in response to determining that a delay caused by waiting for a manual response would result in major disruption to a software factory operation, launching automated recovery measures to correct each identified problem; and

storing results of the automated recovery measures within the software factory in order to improve an operational efficiency of the software factory when used on future projects.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more threshold criteria describe a progress status for servicing a work packet service request.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more threshold criteria further describe how many resources in the software factory are currently being delayed while waiting for an output of a particular work packet.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more threshold criteria further describe how many team members working in the assembly line and a job shop of the software factory are missing.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the work packet further comprises a header, wherein the header comprises a unique identification number, a description of the work packet, a type description of the work packet, and an identifier of a parent object from which the work packet has inheritance.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is a component of a remote server, and wherein the computer executable instructions are deployable to a supervisory computer from the remote server.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the computer executable instructions are capable of being provided by a service provider to a customer on an on-demand basis.