Cause-chain analysis using objects

• US 9,213,951 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2009
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ganjeh, Nima, McMurtry, Craig V.
• Primary Examiner(s): DORAIS, CRAIG C
• Application Number:
  US12/612,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20110107351A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,231 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Identification of the root cause of a change in the system, as well as any side-effects (“ancillary changes”) caused by the change via an object attribute. A change resulting from a request in a system, whether originating from a user, service, or workflow, has an associated request object that captures the details of the change. An ancillary change resulting from the prior change is correlated to the prior change through a parent attribute on the request object that identifies the prior change as the immediate parent. Thus, all downstream ancillary changes resulting from a request can be correlated back to the root request (change) via the parent attributes of the ancillary changes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented change management system, comprising:

a request object created in response to and associated with a change in an environment, the request object related to a request that caused the change and comprising a parent attribute that points to a previous change, thereby enabling the request object to capture details of the change, the request causes ancillary requests associated with ancillary changes and ancillary request objects created for the ancillary changes, the ancillary request objects comprising respective ancillary parent attributes that reference the change as parent of the ancillary changes, the ancillary changes captured in respective ancillary request objects;

a correlation component configured to correlate ancillary changes that result from the change via the corresponding parent object, to determine the request associated with the change as a root cause of all changes in the environment; and

a microprocessor that executes computer-executable instructions in a memory associated with the creation of the request object and the correlation component.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an auditing component configured to audit one or more changes in an environment based on object attributes associated with request objects of the changes and ancillary changes.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the auditing component facilitates determination of the request that caused the change and the ancillary changes as the root cause based on correlation of the ancillary changes to the change using the parent object attributes.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a detection component configured to detect the change as part of the environment and the ancillary changes in the environment, the ancillary changes occurring as a consequence of the change.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the detection component and correlation component are part of an identity management system for account management related to accounts and access administration for network services and computers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the ancillary changes are triggered by a management policy affected by the request.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the ancillary change is captured in an associated ancillary request object, the ancillary request object references the change via the object attribute.

8. A computer-implemented change management system, comprising:

a detection component configured to detect a change in a system and ancillary changes occurring in response to the change;

an object component configured to create a request object in association with and in response to the change the request object comprising a parent attribute that points to a previous change, the request object relates to a request that caused the change, and creates ancillary request objects for the ancillary changes, the ancillary changes captured in respective ancillary request objects, an ancillary request object relates to the request object by a respective ancillary parent object attribute that references the change as the parent of the respective ancillary change;

a correlation component configured to correlate the ancillary changes to the change via the corresponding object attributes associated with the ancillary changes, to determine the request associated with the change as a root cause of the change and the ancillary changes in the system; and

a microprocessor that executes computer-executable instructions in a memory associated with the creation of the detection component, object component, and the correlation component.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an auditing component configured to audit one or more changes in the system based on object attributes associated with changes and ancillary changes.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the auditing component facilitates determination of the request associated with the change as a root cause based on correlation of the ancillary changes to the change using the object attributes.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the detection component, correlation component, and auditing component are part of an identity management system for account management and access administration for network services.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein one of the ancillary changes is triggered by a management policy affected by the request.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein an ancillary change references the change via a parent object attribute.

14. A computer-implemented change management method, comprising acts of:

receiving a request for a change in a system;

creating a request object in association with the change caused by the request, the request object including an object attribute for identifying a previous change that caused the change in the system;

detecting an ancillary change that occurs as a result of the change and of processing the request;

creating an ancillary request object in association with the ancillary change, having a parent object attribute that references the change as the cause of the respective ancillary change;

correlating the ancillary change to the request based on the parent object attribute of the ancillary request object; and

utilizing a microprocessor that executes instructions stored in a memory associated at least with one of the acts of creating a request object, detecting, creating an ancillary request object, or correlating.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifying the request as the root cause based on correlation of the ancillary request object to the request object via the attribute.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifying a management policy affected by the request that caused the ancillary change based on the attribute.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising creating the request object based on receipt of the request for the change.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising creating the request object based on commit of the change to a database.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising auditing all changes in the system and associated ancillary request objects and request objects.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising assigning time information to the request object and the ancillary request object for analysis of changes over a time period.