System and method for analyzing and managing business performance

• US 8,838,468 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2008
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kano, Makoto, Koide, Akio, Liu, Te-Kai, Ramachandran, Bala
• Primary Examiner(s): DICKERSON, TIPHANY B
• Application Number:
  US12/058,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20080208660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,363 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.37, 705/7.27
• US Class Current: 705/7.37
• 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 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for analyzing and managing business performance by designing and evaluating the performance of a business process model comprising a flow of business tasks and artifact sources that generate business artifacts. Business processes may be parsed to identify transformation opportunities meeting transformation conditions specified in a transformation knowledge. One or more identified transformation opportunities may be adopted, and parts of the process may be transformed according to transformation rules specified in a transformation knowledge. Analytics and computer simulation may be employed to evaluate business performance metrics of each of said transformed business processes. Iterative changes may be made to said business processes to manage business performance, reiterating transformation and evaluation steps until a satisfactory business process model is obtained. The resulting output is finally produced as a business process model in machine-readable format and can be deployed to a business environment.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing and managing business performance by designing and evaluating the performance of business process models, comprising the steps of:

using a computer or computer platform to create a business process model comprising a flow of business tasks and artifact sources that generate business artifacts, each of said business tasks and artifact sources being rendered in a machine-readable format which includes a machine-readable identifier and one or more attributes further characterizing each business task and artifact source;

loading into said computer or computer platform digitally-stored transformation knowledge specifying one or more types of transformation opportunities for said flow of business tasks, each of which comprises one or a plurality of transformation conditions, one or a plurality of transformation rules, and one or a plurality of business value attributes for the business tasks in said flow of business tasks comprising at least one of cost and development time;

rendering said business tasks and artifact sources in a machine-readable format which includes a machine readable identifier and attributes characterizing each business task and artifact source;

parsing by the computer the rendered business tasks and artifact sources;

identifying by the computer from said parsing one or more transformation opportunities within said flow of business tasks that are parts of the business process meeting one of the transformation conditions of said types of transformation opportunities, each of which is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge;

adopting one or more transformation opportunities that are identified in the previous step and transforming by the computer the parts of the business process according to the corresponding transformation rules, each of which is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge;

employing one of analytics and computer simulation to evaluate investment cost and development time for the transformation according to the information on business value attributes comprising at least one of cost and development time that is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge, and other business performance metrics of each of said transformed business processes, said business performance metrics including evaluation of cost, resource utilization, maximum process throughput, and process cycle time;

employing data processing in said computer or computer platform to manage the business performance of each of said transformed business processes by making iterative changes to said business processes or artifact sources and reiterating said transformation and evaluation steps until a satisfactory business process model is obtained; and

producing as output from said computer or computer platform a business process model in machine-readable format.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said business process model produced as output is deployed to a live computing environment.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include a determination of the total cost of ownership of said transformed business process.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include a computer implemented analysis of tradeoffs between performance indicators at the business and information technology levels.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of creating a business process model includes the use of a model annotation tool capable of annotating said business performance models with attributes related to middleware and hardware.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include a model transformation engine capable of expanding said annotated business performance models into information technology models by referencing a machine-readable middleware or hardware library, said middleware library containing models of a collection of middleware and said hardware library containing models of a collection of hardware.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein data about future business is input to said models for the computer-implemented prediction of future business performance.

8. A system for analyzing and managing business performance by designing and evaluating the performance of business process models, comprising:

a computer or computer platform, employed to create a business process model comprising a flow of business tasks and artifact sources that generate business artifacts, each of said business tasks and artifact sources being rendered in a machine-readable format which includes a machine-readable identifier and one or more attributes further characterizing each business task and artifact source;

digitally-stored transformation knowledge loaded into said computer or computer platform specifying one or more types of transformation opportunities for said flow of business tasks, each of which comprises one or a plurality of transformation conditions, one or a plurality of transformation rules, and one or a plurality of business value attributes for the business tasks in said flow of business tasks comprising at least one of cost and development time;

means for rendering said business tasks and artifact sources in a machine-readable format which includes a machine readable identifier and attributes characterizing each business task and artifact source;

means for parsing the rendered business tasks and artifact sources;

means for identifying one or more transformation opportunities within said flow of business tasks that are parts of the business process meeting one of the transformation conditions of said types of transformation conditions, each of which is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge;

means for adopting one or more transformation opportunities that are identified in parsing the business process and transforming the parts of the process according to the corresponding transformation rules each of which is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge;

means for employing one of analytics and computer simulation to evaluate investment cost and development time for the transformation according to the information on business value attributes comprising at least one of cost and development time that is specified for each type of transformation opportunity in said digitally-stored transformation knowledge, and business performance metrics of each of said transformed business processes, said business performance metrics including evaluation of cost, resource utilization, maximum process throughput, and process cycle time,

a data processor employed to manage the business performance of each of said transformed business processes by making iterative changes to said business processes or artifact sources and reiterating said transformation and evaluation steps until a satisfactory business process is obtained, and

means for producing a business process model in machine-readable format produced as output.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said business process model produced as output is deployed to a live computing environment.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include a determination of the total cost of ownership of said transformed business process.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include analysis of tradeoffs between performance indicators at the business and information technology levels.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein creation of said business process model includes the use of a model annotation tool capable of annotating said business performance models with attributes related to middleware and hardware.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said analytics and computer simulation include a computer-implemented model transformation engine capable of expanding said annotated business performance models into information technology models by referencing a middleware or hardware library, said middleware library containing models of a collection of middleware and said hardware library containing models of a collection of hardware.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein data about future business is input to said models for the computer-implemented prediction of future business performance.