Matching of cases based on attributes including an attribute relating to flow of activities

• US 9,646,054 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Nezhad, Hamid Reza Motahari, Bartolini, Claudio, Joshi, Parag M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEUNG, HUBERT G
• Application Number:
  US13/238,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models

Abstract

A particular case is matched to further cases, where the matching is based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the further cases, wherein one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a system having a processor, a particular case that is associated with an issue that is to be addressed by an enterprise;

matching, by the system, the particular case to further cases that have been processed, the matching comprises matching based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the further cases, wherein a given one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case, wherein the matching based on the given attribute that relates to a flow of activities comprises comparing a flow of activities of the particular case with flows of activities of the respective further cases, and wherein the matching comprises computing individual similarity scores for each individual attribute of the plural attributes, where the individual similarity scores of each respective one of the plural attributes indicate similarities of the further cases to the particular case according to the respective attribute; and

building indexes for respective ones of at least some of the plural attributes, wherein the matching uses the indexes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching based on the plural attributes further comprises matching based on attributes selected from the group consisting of:

case tag, case title, expert information, participant comments, customer information, case priority, case description, case type, case resolution information, and steps information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching based on the plural attributes further comprises matching based on multiple types of attributes selected from the group consisting of a categorical attribute, a keyword-based attribute, a textual attribute, and a sequence-based attribute,

wherein the given attribute that relates to the flow of activities is a sequence-based attribute.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, for each individual one of the plural attributes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, based on a weighted aggregating of the individual similarity scores computed for each of the plural attributes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the weighted aggregating comprises assigning weights to respective ones of the individual similarity scores.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching comprises one of matching in a basic matching mode based on the plural attributes, and matching in an advanced mode that is based on additional attributes in addition to the plural attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the particular case comprises receiving the particular case associated with a collaboration-based management process, where the particular case contains information due to collaboration among personnel.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a similarity between the flow of activities of the particular case and the flow of activities of a given one of the further cases is based on similarity of steps in the flow of activities of the particular case and steps in the flow of activities of the given further case.

10. An article comprising at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause a system to:

compare attributes of a particular case to attributes of further cases that have been processed, wherein the particular case and further cases relate to at least one issue that is to be addressed by an enterprise, wherein the attributes compared include an attribute relating to a flow of activities taken in the particular case, wherein comparing the attribute relating to the flow of activities taken in the particular case comprises comparing the flow of activities taken in the particular case with flows of activities taken in the respective further cases, wherein the comparing comprises computing similarity scores for each individual one of at least some of the plural attributes, wherein the similarity scores for a given one of the at least some attributes indicate similarities of the further cases to the particular case;

build indexes for respective ones of at least some of the plural attributes, wherein the comparing uses the indexes; and

based on the comparing, match at least one of the further cases to the particular case, wherein the matching is based on the similarity scores, and wherein the matching comprises identifying a predefined number of the further cases that are most similar to the particular case, based on the comparing.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein the matching comprises aggregating, for each of the further cases, similarity scores for respective ones of the at least some attributes.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein the aggregating comprises weighted aggregating in which weights are assigned to respective ones of the similarity scores.

13. The article of claim 10, wherein the plural attributes include multiple types of attributes selected from the group consisting of a categorical attribute, a keyword-based attribute, a textual attribute, and a sequence-based attribute, wherein the attribute relating to the flow of attributes is a sequence-based attribute.

14. The article of claim 10, wherein the comparing comprises comparing steps of the flow of attributes taken in the particular case with steps of each of the flows of activities taken in the respective further cases.

15. A system comprising:

at least one storage medium to store a case repository of cases that relate to at least one issue of an enterprise; and

at least one processor to;

receive a particular case;

match the particular case to the cases in the case repository, the matching based on plural attributes contained in the particular case and in the cases in the case repository, wherein a given one of the plural attributes relates to a flow of activities taken to address the respective case, wherein the matching based on the given attribute that relates to a flow of activities comprises comparing a flow of activities of the particular case with flows of activities of the respective further cases, wherein the matching comprises computing individual similarity scores for each individual attribute of the plural attributes, where the individual similarity scores for each respective one of the plural attributes indicates similarities of the cases in the case repository to the particular case according to the respective attribute; and

build indexes for respective ones of at least some of the plural attributes, wherein the match uses the indexes.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the comparing comprises comparing steps of the flow of attributes of the particular case with steps of each of the flows of activities of the respective further cases.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the matching comprises identifying a number of the cases in the case repository that are most similar to the particular case, based on a weighted aggregating of the individual similarity scores computed for each of the plural attributes.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the weighted aggregating comprises assigning weights to respective ones of the individual similarity scores.