Methods and apparatus to monitor tasks in a process system enterprise

• US 9,740,382 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Pettus, Nathan William, Rajashekar, Navin, Mclaughlin, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): Yi, Rinna
• Application Number:
  US13/748,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20140208253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 715772
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor tasks in a process system enterprise are disclosed. In one example, a method is disclosed that comprises analyzing, using a processor, tasks in an enterprise to determine a criticality of each task and an actionability of each task, ordering, using the processor, the tasks based on the criticality and the actionability of each of the tasks, and rendering, via a display, a first graphic representative of at least a portion of the ordered tasks.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

analyzing, using a processor, tasks to be performed in an enterprise to determine a criticality of the tasks and an actionability of the tasks, the tasks associated with at least one of maintenance of operations or administrative actions in a process control system of the enterprise, the criticality of respective ones of the tasks based on (1) a severity of a risk associated with at least one of a safety or a reliability of the operations of a component in the process control system if the task is not performed and (2) a significance of a difference in likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is performed relative to the likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is not performed, the actionability of respective ones of the tasks indicative of at least one of a viability or a feasibility of performing the task relative to performing other tasks, wherein the component corresponds to at least one of one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more units, one or more areas, one or more process cells, one or more workstations, one or more software packages, one or more pieces of hardware, or one or more field devices in the process control system;

ordering, using the processor, the tasks based on the criticality and the actionability of the tasks;

rendering a user interface having multiple views via a display, the user interface providing a first graphic representative of at least a portion of the ordered tasks, wherein the first graphic is a chart having a first axis corresponding to the criticality of the tasks and a second axis corresponding to the actionability of the tasks, the chart to include markers plotted thereon, ones of the markers representative of one or more of the tasks;

displaying the chart in a site view of the user interface when the site view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a first set of markers corresponding to different sites within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected; and

displaying the chart in a system view of the user interface when the system view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a second set of markers corresponding to different systems within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected, wherein locations of the first set of markers plotted within the chart are different than locations of the second set of markers plotted within the chart.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a location of each marker plotted on the chart is based on a weighted average of the criticality and the actionability of the one or more tasks associated with each corresponding marker.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each marker corresponds to any of one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more areas, one or more units, one or more process cells, or one or more workstations within the enterprise.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising adjusting any one of a size, a shape, an outline, a color, or an intensity of each marker to indicate a corresponding size of the one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more areas, one or more units, one or more process cells, or one or more workstations associated with the marker.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising adjusting any one of a size, a shape, an outline, a color, or an intensity of each marker to indicate a number of tasks associated with the corresponding one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more areas, one or more units, one or more process cells, or one or more workstations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the tasks is based on vendor specific information associated with any of software, firmware, or hardware associated with the corresponding tasks.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

grouping the tasks into one or more categories; and

rendering, via the display, a second graphic indicative of a number, a status, or a characteristic of the tasks associated with each of the one or more categories.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

grouping the tasks in each of the one or more categories into first and second subcategories, the tasks associated with the first subcategory having a higher priority than the tasks associated with the second subcategory; and

rendering, via the display, a third graphic having information relating to the tasks associated with at least one of the first subcategory or the second subcategory within one of the one or more categories.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

reordering the tasks based on user input weights; and

updating any of the first, second, or third graphics based on the reordered tasks.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user input weights are to be applied to any of one or more of the tasks, one or more of the first or second subcategories, one or more of the categories, one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more areas, one or more units, one or more process cells, or one or more workstations.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more categories correspond to at least one of a lifecycle status or a change in lifecycle status.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more categories correspond to at least one of license utilization or a registration status.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more categories correspond to at least one of customer support expirations or warranty expirations.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more categories correspond to any of information articles, hotfixes, operating system updates, or technical support calls.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein a first one of the markers is associated with a subset of the tasks, a location of the first one of the markers plotted on the chart is based on a first task within the subset having at least one of a highest criticality or a highest actionability relative to other tasks in the subset.

16. A system, comprising:

a processor to implement a system management application to;

analyze tasks to be performed in an enterprise, the tasks associated with at least one of maintenance of operations or administrative actions in a process control system of the enterprise;

quantify a criticality for the tasks, the criticality of respective ones of the tasks based on (1) a severity of a risk associated with at least one of a safety or a reliability of the operations of a component in the process control system if the corresponding task is not performed and (2) a significance of a difference in likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is performed relative to the likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is not performed, wherein the component corresponds to at least one of one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more units, one or more areas, one or more process cells, one or more workstations, one or more software packages, one or more pieces of hardware, or one or more field devices in the process control system; and

quantify an actionability for the tasks, the actionability of respective ones of the tasks indicative of at least one of a viability or a feasibility of performing the task relative to performing other tasks; and

a display to render user interface having multiple views, the user interface to provide a first graphic representative of at least one of the criticality or actionability corresponding to at least a portion of the tasks in the enterprise, wherein the first graphic is a chart having a first axis corresponding to the criticality of the tasks and a second axis corresponding to the actionability of the tasks, the chart to include markers plotted thereon, ones of the markers representative of one or more of the tasks, the user interface to;

provide the chart in a site view when the site view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a first set of markers corresponding to different sites within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected; and

provide the chart in a system view when the system view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a second set of markers corresponding to different systems within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected, wherein locations of the first set of markers plotted within the chart are different than locations of the second set of markers plotted within the chart.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein different ones of the markers correspond to different components of the enterprise.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein an appearance of the different ones of the markers is to be indicative of a size of the different components of the enterprise or a number of tasks associated with the different components of the enterprise.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein a location of each marker plotted on the chart is based on a weighted average of the criticality and the actionability of the one or more tasks associated with each corresponding marker.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein weights associated with the criticality or actionability of respective ones of the tasks or a group of tasks are to be adjusted based on a user input.

21. A tangible non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

analyze tasks in an enterprise to determine a criticality of the tasks and an actionability of the tasks, the tasks associated with at least one of maintenance of operations or administrative actions in a process control system of the enterprise, the criticality of respective ones of the tasks based on (1) a severity of risk associated with at least one of a safety or a reliability of the operations of a component in the process control system if the corresponding task is not performed and (2) a significance of a difference in likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is performed relative to the likelihood of the risk being realized if the task is not performed, the actionability of respective ones of the tasks indicative of at least one of a viability or a feasibility of performing the task relative to performing other tasks, wherein the component corresponds to at least one of one or more sites, one or more systems, one or more units, one or more areas, one or more process cells, one or more workstations, one or more software packages, one or more pieces of hardware, or one or more field devices in the process control system;

order the tasks based on the criticality and the actionability of the tasks;

render a user interface having multiple views via a display, the user interface providing a first graphic representative of at least a portion of the ordered tasks, wherein the first graphic is a chart having a first axis corresponding to the criticality of the tasks and a second axis corresponding to the actionability of the tasks, the chart to include markers plotted thereon, ones of the markers representative of one or more of the tasks;

display the chart in a site view of the user interface when the site view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a first set of markers corresponding to different sites within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected; and

display the chart in a system view of the user interface when the system view for the chart is user-selected via the user interface, wherein the markers are a second set of markers corresponding to different systems within the enterprise when the site view is user-selected, wherein locations of the first set of markers plotted within the chart are different than locations of the second set of markers plotted within the chart.

22. The tangible non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein a location of each marker plotted on the chart is based on a weighted average of the criticality and the actionability of the one or more tasks associated with each corresponding marker.

23. The tangible non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

group the tasks into one or more categories; and

render, via the display, a second graphic indicative of a number, a status, or a characteristic of the tasks associated with each of the one or more categories.

24. The tangible non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

group the tasks in each of the one or more categories into first and second subcategories, the tasks associated with the first subcategory having a higher priority than the tasks associated with the second subcategory; and

render, via the display, a third graphic having information relating to the tasks associated with at least one of the first subcategory or the second subcategory within one of the one or more categories.