System and method for enabling decision activities in a process management and design environment

• US 8,996,394 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Nores, Juan Cruz, Lopez-Gabeiras, Emilio, Rodriguez Olivera, Fernando Javier
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US11/937,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20080288304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,700 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

A set of decision activities can be provided to a business process management and design software tool. The tool can be used to define various processes that contain one or more activities linked by transitions. During process design time, a business analyst can identify process-relevant data of the process to be presented to the end users. The relevant data can be rendered to the end users at runtime, along with a set of possible options for the activities in a process instance. Upon receiving a decision of the user, the process instance can follow the selected transition to a different activity. Over time, the system can capture the decisions taken by users and enter the data associated with these decisions into a data classifier. In doing so, the software tool can generate suggestions, provide probabilities, automate and distribute workloads, flag abnormalities and deviations and generally improve process design and management.

Claims

1. A system for providing decision activities in a business process management environment, said system comprising one or more hardware processors and physical memory storing one or more sequences of instructions executable by said one or more hardware processors to implement:

a process designer module that defines a process model, said process model including a plurality of activities linked by transitions;

wherein said activities include at least one decision activity for providing suggestions based on historical data, said decision activity being selected from the plurality of activities during definition of the process model, wherein said decision activity is associated with a set of variables during the definition of the process model, wherein said variables are designated as being relevant to selecting one of the transitions from the decision activity to another activity at process runtime; and

an execution engine that instantiates a process instance by executing at least one of said activities of the process model, wherein upon instantiating the process instance, the execution engine displays to an end user a plurality of selections for selecting a next activity in the process and displays the set of variables relevant to selecting the next activity, wherein the execution engine receives the selection of the next activity from the end user, wherein the execution engine continuously captures a plurality of said selections taken by the end user during execution of a plurality of process instances, and wherein upon a subsequent execution of the process instance, the execution engine computes a probability percentage and a confidence level for each of the plurality of selections of the next activity from the decision activity based on values of the variables in said subsequent process instance and based on said selections captured from the end user during the execution of the plurality of process instances.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an execution console that manages said process instance and presents one or more end users with a set of available options for making said decision in an executed activity of said instance.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a repository that maintains state data associated with said process instance, said state data including one or more persistent variables and said one or more decisions.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an organizational settings module that populates said process model with organization-specific values in order to instantiate said process instance.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a data classifier module for analyzing said data, wherein the execution engine enters data associated with said decisions into said data classifier module.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said data classifier module is a support vector machine using a radial basis function kernel.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said suggestion is based on a percentage of previous decisions made in instances of said process.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein an exception is generated upon determining a deviation from the norm based on previous decisions.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein work is automatically distributed by said system based on data specific to said process instance.

10. A method for providing decision activities in a business process management environment, said method comprising:

defining a process that contains one or more activities linked by transitions;

designating at least one of said activities as a decision activity during the definition of the process, wherein the decision activity is associated with process-relevant data presented to one or more end users that is relevant to selecting one of the transitions from the decision activity to another activity at process runtime;

instantiating a process instance by executing the process on a computer including one or more microprocessors wherein upon instantiating the process instance, a plurality of selections is displayed to an end user for selecting a next activity in the process and the set of variables relevant to selecting the next activity is displayed to the end user;

receiving selection of at least one of said set of possible options wherein said decisions determine the transitions through which the process instance proceeds;

continuously capturing said one or more decisions taken by the end users during execution of a plurality of process instances, wherein upon a subsequent execution of the process instance, a probability percentage and a confidence level is computed by the computer for each of the plurality of the selections of the next activity from the decision activity based on the values of the variables in said subsequent process instance and based on said selections captured from the end user during the execution of the plurality of process instances.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein generating a suggestion based on said decisions and providing said suggestion to said end users further includes:

calculating one or more probability percentages of prior decisions taken over said period of time an displaying said probability percentages to the end user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein generating a suggestion based on said decisions and providing said suggestion to said end users further includes:

determining a certainty level of said probability percentages.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying said process-relevant data further includes:

seeding an initial value of said suggestion; and

determining an effect of said initial value over the period of time by comparing said initial value against said decisions captured over the period of time.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein generating a suggestion based said decisions and providing said suggestion to the end users further includes:

determining a deviation from a standard procedure based on prior decisions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining a deviation further includes:

generating an exception within said process instance based on said deviation.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein said relevant data and said decisions are stored into a content repository.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said data classifier mechanism is a support vector machine using a radial basis function kernel.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein capturing said one or more decisions further includes:

entering said decisions into a data classifier mechanism.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

distributing workload of said process based on process instance-specific content.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a set of instructions which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

defining a process that contains one or more activities linked by transitions;

designating at least one of said activities as a decision activity during the definition of the process, wherein the decision activity is associated with process-relevant data presented to one or more end users that is relevant to selecting one of the transitions from the decision activity to another activity at process runtime;

instantiating a process instance by executing the process wherein upon instantiating the process instance, a plurality of selections is displayed to an end user for selecting a next activity in the process and the set of variables relevant to selecting the next activity is displayed to the end user;

receiving selection of at least one of said set of possible options wherein said decisions determine the transitions through which the process instance proceeds;

continuously capturing said one or more decisions taken by the end users during execution of a plurality of process instances, wherein upon a subsequent execution of the process instance, a probability percentage and a confidence level is computed for each of the plurality of the selections of the next activity from the decision activity based on the values of the variables in said subsequent process instance and based on said selections captured from the end user during the execution of the plurality of process instances.