Automatically generating artifacts for service delivery

• US 8,752,002 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2009
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Banavar, Guruduth Somasekhara, Dhanesha, Ketki A., Hartman, Alan, Thukral, Inderpreet, Jain, Anshu N
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu, Junchun
• Application Number:
  US12/608,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20110107295A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,685 Days
• Field of Search: 717/104
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Techniques for generating one or more artifacts for service delivery are provided. The techniques include receiving one or more service design inputs, using the one or more service design inputs to generate an internal representation of the service design, using the internal representation of the service to generate one or more artifacts of the service, and incorporating the one or more artifacts into the service design and outputting the service.

Claims

1. A method for generating one or more artifacts for service delivery, wherein the method comprises:

receiving service design inputs comprising market environment information pertaining to users in a target market for the service, one or more objectives, one or more user needs, and one or more constraints;

using the one or more service design inputs to generate an internal representation of the service design, wherein said generating the internal representation comprises;

defining each of multiple actors to participate in delivery of the service, wherein said multiple actors comprise all humans necessary for completion of the service delivery;

defining each of one or more activities of the service;

mapping the multiple actors, the one or more objectives and the one or more constraints to each applicable activity of the one or more activities; and

creating one or more task flows for the one or more activities;

using the internal representation of the service to generate one or more artifacts of the service, wherein said using the internal representation of the service to generate said one or more artifacts comprises;

accessing a registry comprising (i) an artifact key of multiple artifacts and (ii) multiple artifact generator identifiers;

searching the registry to identify one or more desired artifact generator identifiers based on a requested artifact generator pertaining to the internal representation; and

retrieving the one or more desired artifact generators corresponding to the one or more identified artifact generator identifiers from a collection of artifact generators; and

incorporating the one or more artifacts into the service design and outputting the service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the one or more service design inputs to generate an internal representation of the service design comprises using a service design tool to build the internal representation from the one or more service design inputs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein using the internal representation of the service to generate one or more artifacts of the service comprises using a software tool to automatically generate the one or more artifacts of service design.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein incorporating the one or more artifacts into the service design and outputting the service comprises outputting the service to one or more users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more artifacts of the service comprises at least one of one or more artifacts for customers, one or more artifacts for users, one or more artifacts for managers, one or more artifacts for information technology (IT) enablement and one or more physical artifacts.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more artifacts for customers comprise at least one of a service catalog, advertising material, a user guide for customers and one or more website templates.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more artifacts for users comprise at least one of one or more workflows, training material, and one or more online guides.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more artifacts for managers comprise at least one of a governance framework, key performance and quality indicators, and a workforce management plan.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more artifacts for information technology (IT) enablement comprise at least one of an application framework, a data schema design, one or more monitoring probes, and one or more management dashboards.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more physical artifacts comprise at least one of one or more facilities, one or more equipment needs, and one or more product components.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting feedback from at least one of one or more customers, one or more users, one or more infrastructure elements, and management.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising using the feedback to improve implementation of the service.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a system, wherein the system comprises one or more distinct software modules, each of the one or more distinct software modules being embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, and wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise an artifact generator module, a strategic function module, a marketing function module, an operations function module, a design parameters module and a service engineering workbench (SEW) generation engine module executing on a hardware processor.

14. A computer program product comprising a tangible non-transitory computer readable recordable storage medium including computer useable program code for generating one or more artifacts for service delivery, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for receiving service design inputs comprising market environment information pertaining to users in a target market for the service, one or more objectives, one or more user needs, and one or more constraints;

computer useable program code for using the one or more service design inputs to generate an internal representation of the service design, wherein said generating the internal representation comprises;

defining each of multiple actors to participate in delivery of the service, wherein said multiple actors comprise all humans necessary for completion of the service delivery;

defining each of one or more activities of the service;

mapping the multiple actors, the one or more objectives and the one or more constraints to each applicable activity of the one or more activities; and

creating one or more task flows for the one or more activities;

computer useable program code for using the internal representation of the service to generate one or more artifacts of the service, wherein said using the internal representation of the service to generate said one or more artifacts comprises;

accessing a registry comprising (i) an artifact key of multiple artifacts and (ii) multiple artifact generator identifiers;

searching the registry to identify one or more desired artifact generator identifiers based on a requested artifact generator pertaining to the internal representation; and

retrieving the one or more desired artifact generators corresponding to the one or more identified artifact generator identifiers from a collection of artifact generators; and

computer useable program code for incorporating the one or more artifacts into the service design and outputting the service.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the one or more artifacts of the service comprises at least one of one or more artifacts for customers, one or more artifacts for users, one or more artifacts for managers, one or more artifacts for information technology (IT) enablement and one or more physical artifacts.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer useable program code comprises one or more distinct software modules, and wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise an artifact generator module, a strategic function module, a marketing function module, an operations function module, a design parameters module and a service engineering workbench (SEW) generation engine module executing on a hardware processor.

17. A system for generating one or more artifacts for service delivery, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

receive service design inputs comprising market environment information pertaining to users in a target market for the service, one or more objectives, one or more user needs, and one or more constraints;

use the one or more service design inputs to generate an internal representation of the service design, wherein said generating the internal representation comprises;

defining each of multiple actors to participate in delivery of the service, wherein said multiple actors comprise all humans necessary for completion of the service delivery;

defining each of one or more activities of the service;

mapping the multiple actors, the one or more objectives and the one or more constraints to each applicable activity of the one or more activities; and

creating one or more task flows for the one or more activities;

use the internal representation of the service to generate one or more artifacts of the service, wherein said using the internal representation of the service to generate said one or more artifacts comprises;

accessing a registry comprising (i) an artifact key of multiple artifacts and (ii) multiple artifact generator identifiers;

searching the registry to identify one or more desired artifact generator identifiers based on a requested artifact generator pertaining to the internal representation; and

retrieving the one or more desired artifact generators corresponding to the one or more identified artifact generator identifiers from a collection of artifact generators; and

incorporate the one or more artifacts into the service design and outputting the service.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more artifacts of the service comprises at least one of one or more artifacts for customers, one or more artifacts for users, one or more artifacts for managers, one or more artifacts for information technology (IT) enablement and one or more physical artifacts.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium having one or more distinct software modules embodied thereon, wherein the one or more distinct software modules comprise an artifact generator module, a strategic function module, a marketing function module, an operations function module, a design parameters module and a service engineering workbench (SEW) generation engine module executing on a hardware processor.