Identifying direct and indirect cost of a disruption of a resource

• US 9,489,653 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kenkre, Sreyash D., Mehta, Sameep, Narayanam, Krishnasuri, Pandit, Vinayaka D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US14/250,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20140222490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and associated systems for automatically identifying critical resources in an organization. An organization creates a model of the dependencies between pairs of resource types, wherein that model describes how the organization'"'"'s projects and services are affected when a resource type becomes unavailable. This model may include a system of directed graphs. This model may be used to automatically identify a resource type as critical if unacceptable cost is incurred by resuming projects and services rendered infeasible when the resource type is disrupted. The model may also be used to automatically identify a first resource type as critical for a second resource type when disruption of the first resource type forces the available capacity of the second resource type to fall below a threshold value.

Claims

1. A method for automatically identifying a cost to an organization caused by a disruption of a resource,

wherein units of the resource are made available by a plurality of resource instances,

wherein a project requires a minimum number of units of the resource,

wherein a total number of available units of the resource available to the project is a sum of the numbers of units that can be made available by all resource instances of the plurality or resource instances, and

wherein a disruption of a first resource instance of the plurality of resource instances results in the first resource instance becoming unable to make any units of the resource available to the project,

the method comprising:

a processor of a computer system receiving one or more dependency relationships, wherein a dependency relationship of the one or more dependency relationships relates an independent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances to a dependent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances, such that an independent disruption of the independent resource instance results in a resulting disruption of the dependent resource instance;

the processor organizing the one or more received dependency relationships into a directed graph, wherein the directed graph represents a dependency relationship between two resource instances of the plurality of resource instances as a directed path between two nodes, and wherein the directed graph links a first dependency relationship to a second dependency relationship by using a same node to represent both an independent resource instance of the first dependency relationship and a dependent resource instance of the second dependency relationship,

the processor adjusting the total number of available units account for an initial disruption of an initially disrupted resource instance of the plurality of resource instances by traversing a path of the directed graph, starting at anode that represents the initially disrupted resource instance, and by decreasing the total number of available units by a number of units that prior to the initial disruption had been made available by each resource instance represented by a node along the path;

the processor identifying the cost of the initial disruption as a function of the adjusting.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the adjusted total number of available units is less than the minimum number of units; and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

3. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the cost of the initial disruption exceeds a critical cost threshold; and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the disruption causes the project to be rendered infeasible, and wherein the cost comprises a resumption cost incurred by resuming the infeasible project.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the resumption cost comprises a substitution cost that is a function of a cost of substituting available units of a second type of resource for unavailable units of a resource instance of the plurality of resource instances made directly or indirectly unavailable by the of initial disruption.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the resumption cost further comprises a time-delay cost that is a function of a length of time required to perform the substituting.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule of a plurality of substitutability rules, wherein the substitutability rule specifies the project, the disrupted resource, and the second type of resource, and wherein the substitutability rule further specifies a number of units of the second type of resource that may be substituted for an unavailable unit of the disrupted resource.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable program code in the computer system, wherein the computer-readable program code in combination with the computer system is configured to implement the receiving, organizing, adjusting, and identifying.

9. A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having a computer-readable program code stored therein, the program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for automatically identifying a cost to an organization caused by a disruption of a resource,

wherein units of the resource are made available by a plurality of resource instances,

wherein a project requires a minimum number of units of the resource,

wherein a total number of available units of the resource available to the project is a sum of the numbers of units that can be made available by all resource instances of the plurality or resource instances, and

wherein a disruption of a first resource instance of the plurality of resource instances results in the first resource instance becoming unable to make any units of the resource available to the project,

the method comprising:

the processor receiving one or more dependency relationships, wherein a dependency relationship of the one or more dependency relationships relates an independent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances to a dependent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances, such that an independent disruption of the independent resource instance results in a resulting disruption of the dependent resource instance;

the processor organizing the one or more received dependency relationships into a directed graph, wherein the directed graph represents a dependency relationship between two resource instances of the plurality of resource instances as a directed path between two nodes, and wherein the directed graph links a first dependency relationship to a second dependency relationship by using a same node to represent both an independent resource instance of the first dependency relationship and a dependent resource instance of the second dependency relationship;

the processor adjusting the total lumber of available units to account for an initial disruption of an initially disrupted resource instance of the plurality of resource instances by traversing a path of the directed graph, starting at a node that represents the initially disrupted resource instance, and by decreasing the total number of available units by a number of units that prior to the initial disruption had been made available by each resource instance represented by a node along the path;

the processor identifying the cost of the initial disruption as a function of the adjusting.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the adjusted total number of available units is less than the minimum number of units; and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the cost of the initial disruption exceeds a critical cost threshold; and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the disruption causes the project to be rendered infeasible, and wherein the cost comprises a resumption cost incurred by resuming the infeasible project.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the resumption cost comprises a substitution cost that is a function of a cost of substituting available units of a second type of resource for unavailable units of a resource instance of the plurality of resource instances made directly or indirectly unavailable by the of initial disruption.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the resumption cost further comprises a time-delay cost that is a function of a length of time required to perform the substituting.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the substituting is constrained by a substitutability rule of a plurality of substitutability rules, wherein the substitutability rule specifies the project, the disrupted resource, and the second type of resource, and wherein the substitutability rule further specifies a number of units of the second type of resource that may be substituted for an unavailable unit of the disrupted resource.

16. A computer system comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a computer-readable hardware storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device containing program code configured to be run by the processor via the memory to implement a method for automatically identifying a cost to an organization caused by a disruption of a resource,

wherein units of the resource are made available by a plurality of resource instances,

wherein a project requires a minimum number of units of the resource,

wherein a total number of available units of the resource available to the project is a sum of the numbers of units that can be made available by all resource instances of the plurality or resource instances, and

wherein a disruption of a first resource instance of the plurality of resource instances results in the first resource instance becoming unable to make any units of the resource available to the project,

the method comprising:

the processor receiving one or more dependency relationships, wherein a dependency relationship of the one or more dependency relationships relates an independent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances to a dependent resource instance of the plurality of resource instances, such that an independent disruption of the independent resource instance results in a resulting disruption of the dependent resource instance;

the processor organizing the one or more received dependency relationships into a directed graph, wherein the directed graph represents a dependency relationship between two resource instances of the plurality of resource instances as a directed path between two nodes, and wherein the directed graph links a first dependency relationship to a second dependency relationship by using a same node to represent both an independent resource instance of the first dependency relationship and a dependent resource instance of the second dependency relationship;

the processor adjusting the total number of available units to account for an initial disruption of an initially disrupted resource instance of the plurality of resource instances by traversing a path of the directed graph, starting at anode that represents the initially disrupted resource instance, and by decreasing the total number of available units by a number of units that prior to the initial disruption had been made available by each resource instance represented by a node along the path;

the processor identifying the cost of the initial disruption as a function of the adjusting.

17. The computer system of claim 16, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the adjusted total number of available units is less than the minimum number of units, and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

18. The computer system of claim 16, the method further comprising:

the processor determining that the cost of the initial disruption exceeds a critical cost threshold; and

the processor categorizing the initially disrupted resource instance as critical to the project as a function of the determining.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the disruption causes the project to be rendered infeasible, and wherein the cost comprises a resumption cost incurred by resuming the infeasible project.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the resumption cost comprises a substitution cost that is a function of a cost of substituting available units of a second type of resource for unavailable units of a resource instance of the plurality of resource instances made directly or indirectly unavailable by the of initial disruption, and wherein the resumption cost further comprises a time-delay cost that is a function of a length of time required to perform the substituting.