System and method for designing effective business policies via business rules analysis

• US 8,731,983 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2005
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gudla, Rahul, Bhosle, Amit Madhukar, Chandrasekaran, Vijay
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett, Scott L
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOY, PAN G
• Application Number:
  US11/156,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190310A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,256 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.11, 705/7.37
• US Class Current: 705/7.11
• 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 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for analyzing the business rules, business metrics, and decision parameters for a firm or organization, processing a subset of such data to form output, and offering access to selective views of such output including evaluation and comparative data regarding execution of such business rules, information on corresponding business metrics or sets of business metrics, information on corresponding decision parameters or sets of decision parameters or scenarios, and other useful analytic information which can help a firm or organization evaluate and modify business policies based on said rules, metrics, and parameters. In addition to said rules, metrics and/or parameters, the data for the business rule analysis can include conventional historical data or hypothetical data based on simulations which the current system and method provide based on prescribed random and non-random algorithms. The simulated or hypothetical data enables users to conduct rule analysis based on historical data, simulated data, or hybrid models. In this manner, the methods and systems described in this invention provide for both an evaluation of a firm'"'"'s current policies as well as an evaluation of policy modifications not actually executed but for which hypothetical data can be provided and analyzed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a selection of a business metric that corresponds to a register to store metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business metric indicating the business metric as selected by a user;

receiving a selection of a business rule usable to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business rule indicating the business rule as selected by the user;

receiving a selection of a decision parameter included in the business rule, the selection of the decision parameter indicating that the decision parameter is selected by the user;

receiving a selection of a set of parameter values of the decision parameter, each of the set of parameter values being usable to modify the business rule, the selection of the set of parameter values indicating the set of parameter values as selected by the user;

receiving a selection of input data able to be processed with the business rule to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the input data indicating the input data as selected by the user;

generating the metric values of the business metric selected by the user, the generating of the metric values being performed by a computer and including;

modifying the business rule by using each parameter value of the set of parameter values as the decision parameter; and

processing at least some of the input data with the modified business rule; and

identifying the decision parameter as a most critical decision parameter that, as a result of its parameter values being changed by a predetermined percentage affects the business metric most compared to other decision parameters included in the business rule.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a list of scenarios based on the set of parameter values of the decision parameter, each scenario within the list of scenarios corresponding to at least one parameter value of the set of parameter values.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a selection of an input data source, the selection of the input data source indicating the input data source as selected by the user; and

accessing the input data via the input data source.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

extracting the input data from a data set available from an input data source, the input data being a portion of the data set.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the input data is a portion of a data group included in the data set; and

the extracting of the input data includes accessing the data group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the input data is a portion of a data row included in the data group; and

the extracting of the input data includes accessing the data row.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the input data includes simulated data, the simulated data being different from historical data of an organization.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the simulated data is generated based on a time period that corresponds to an absence of the historical data.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the simulated data is generated based on the historical data of the organization.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the simulated data is generated based on an algorithm selected from a group consisting of;

a Monte Carlo simulation based on a probability distribution;

a random unbounded number distribution;

a random bounded number distribution;

a discrete bounded number distribution; and

a Gaussian number distribution.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a selection of an algorithm, the selection of the algorithm indicating the algorithm as selected by the user; and

generating simulated data as the input data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a portion of the input data, the selection of the portion of the input data indicating the portion of the input data as selected by the user;

wherein

the generating of the metric values of the business metric includes processing the portion of the input data with the modified business rule.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the register that corresponds to the business metric, the selection of the register indicating that the register is selected by the user;

wherein

the register is included in a plurality of registers that correspond to the business metric.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the register that corresponds to the business metric is representative of a plurality of the metric values of the business metric that transgress a threshold value.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the register that corresponds to the business metric is representative of a plurality of the metric values of the business metric that match a particular value.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the register that corresponds to the business metric is representative of at least one of a maximum, a minimum, an average, or a sum of the metric values of the business metric.

17. A system comprising:

a user interface module embodied in a computer, the user interface module being configured to;

receive a selection of a business metric that corresponds to a register to store metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business metric indicating the business metric as selected by a user;

receive a selection of a business rule usable to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business rule indicating the business rule as selected by the user;

receive a selection of a decision parameter included in the business rule, the selection of the decision parameter indicating the decision parameter as selected by the user;

receive a selection of a set of parameter values of the decision parameter, each of the set of parameter values being usable to modify the business rule, the selection of the set of parameter values indicating the set of parameter values as selected by the user; and

receive a selection of input data able to be processed with the business rule to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the input data indicating the input data as selected by the user;

a rules engine module embodied in the computer and communicatively coupled to the user interface module, the rules engine module configuring the computer to generate the metric values of the business metric by;

modifying the business rule by use of each parameter value of the set of parameter values as the decision parameter; and

processing at least some of the input data with the modified business rule; and

a profiler module embodied in the computer and communicatively coupled to the rules engine module, the profiler module being configured to identify the decision parameter as a most critical decision parameter that, as a result of its parameter values being changed by a predetermined percentage, affects the business metric most compared to other decision parameters included in the business rule.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions tangibly embodying a computer-based method, the instructions, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to perform the computer-based method, the computer-based method comprising:

receiving a selection of a business metric that corresponds to a register to store metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business metric indicating the business metric as selected by a user;

receiving a selection of a business rule usable to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the business rule indicating the business rule as selected by the user;

receiving a selection of a decision parameter included in the business rule, the selection of the decision parameter indicating the decision parameter as selected by the user;

receiving a selection of a set of parameter values of the decision parameter, each of the set of parameter values being usable to modify the business rule, the selection of the set of parameter values indicating the set of parameter values as selected by the user;

receiving a selection of input data able to be processed with the business rule to generate the metric values of the business metric, the selection of the input data indicating that the input data is selected by the user;

generating the metric values of the business metric selected by the user, the generating of the metric values including;

modifying the business rule by using each parameter value of the set of parameter values as the decision parameter; and

processing at least some of the input data with the modified business rule; and

identifying the decision parameter as a most critical decision parameter that, as a result of its parameter values being changed by a predetermined percentage, affects the business metric most compared to other decision parameters included in the business rule.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer-based method further comprises:

creating a list of scenarios based on the set of parameter values of the decision parameter, each scenario within the list of scenarios corresponding to at least one parameter value of the set of parameter values.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer-based method further comprises:

receiving a selection of an input data source, the selection of the input data source indicating the input data source as selected by the user; and

accessing the input data via the input data source.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein:

the input data includes simulated data, the simulated data being different from historical data of an organization; and

computer-based method further comprises

generating the simulated data based on a time period that corresponds to an absence of the historical data, the generating of the simulated data being based on the historical data.