Cognitive process enactment

• US 10,628,777 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2017
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hull, Richard B., Motahari Nezhad, Hamid R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US15/706,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20190087756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/045 Explanation of inference; Explainable artificial intelligence [XAI]; Interpretable artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

One embodiment provides for continuously adaptive business process management definition and execution including obtaining, by a processor, business process models and a process runtime environment. A business process model is discovered. Business rules that support decision making for the business process model are discovered. A process plan is defined in view of the business rules for achieving a predetermined goal. A next action in the process plan is determined based on the business rules in a current process portion and providing a recommendation for acting on the next action. The next action is executed based on the recommendation. A change in a world effect status is determined after executing the next action. The process plan is updated. A continuously adaptive business process model and execution environment are generated.

Claims

1. A method for continuously adaptive business process management definition and execution comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, a plurality of business process models and a process runtime environment;

discovering a particular one business process model from the plurality of business process models;

discovering business rules that supports decision making for the particular one business process model;

defining a process plan in view of the business rules for achieving an initial goal;

determining a next action in the process plan based on the business rules in a current process portion and providing a recommendation for acting on the next action;

executing a processing thread for the next action based on the recommendation;

determining a change in a world effect status after executing the processing thread for the next action;

updating the process plan;

generating a continuously adaptive business process model and execution environment;

discovering new goals;

extracting entity information from input documents; and

generating a model knowledge graph including a first parse-tree for process fragments using the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering the particular one business process model comprises defining the particular one business process model.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the continuously adaptive business process model in the execution environment.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

generating a status knowledge graph including a second parse-tree for process fragments based on the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information; and

generating logical expressions based on the model knowledge graph and the status knowledge graph.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, unstructured data source information describing business processes; and

generating a processing model using the unstructured data source information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the unstructured data source information comprises at least one of:

electronic device and sensor information, and text from;

process manuals, schedules, plans, policies, rules, software applications and electronic communications.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a process knowledge graph including a parse-tree for process fragments based on process fragments and a set of actionable statements and business constraints; and

mapping process descriptions to executables.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein all attributes of an action are linked to the action with at least one link.

9. A computer program product for continuously adaptive business process management definition and execution, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

obtain, by the processor, a plurality of business process models and a process runtime environment;

discover, by the processor, a particular one business process model from the plurality of business process models;

discover, by the processor, business rules that supports decision making for the particular one business process model;

define, by the processor, a process plan in view of the business rules for achieving an initial goal;

determine, by the processor, a next action in the process plan based on the business rules in a current process portion and providing a recommendation for acting on the next action;

execute, by the processor, a processing thread for the next action based on the recommendation;

determine, by the processor, a change in a world effect status after executing the processing thread for the next action;

update, by the processor, the process plan;

generate, by the processor, a continuously adaptive business process model and execution environment;

discover, by the processor, new goals;

extract, by the processor, entity information from input documents; and

generate, by the processor, a model knowledge graph including a first parse-tree for process fragments using the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein discovering the particular one business process model comprises defining the particular one business process model.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the processor is further caused to:

execute, by the processor, the continuously adaptive business process model in the execution environment.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the processor is further caused to:

generate, by the processor, a status knowledge graph including a second parse-tree for process fragments based on the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information; and

generate, by the processor, logical expressions based on the model knowledge graph and the status knowledge graph.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the processor is further caused to:

obtain, by a processor, unstructured data source information describing business processes; and

generate, by the processor, a processing model using the unstructured data source information.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the unstructured data source information comprises at least one of:

electronic device and sensor information, and text from;

process manuals, schedules, plans, policies, rules, software applications and electronic communications.

15. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the processor is further caused to:

generate, by the processor, a process knowledge graph including a parse-tree for process fragments based on process fragments and a set of actionable statements and business constraints; and

map, by the processor, process descriptions to executables.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein all attributes of an action are linked to the action with at least one link.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to;

obtain a plurality of business process models and a process runtime environment;

discover a particular one business process model from the plurality of business process models;

discover business rules that supports decision making for the particular one business process model;

define a process plan in view of the business rules for achieving an initial goal;

determine a next action in the process plan based on the business rules in a current process portion and providing a recommendation for acting on the next action;

execute a processing thread for the next action based on the recommendation;

determine a change in a world effect status after executing the processing thread for the next action;

update the process plan;

generate a continuously adaptive business process model and execution environment;

discover new goals;

extract entity information from input documents;

generate a model knowledge graph including a first parse-tree for process fragments using the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

obtain unstructured data source information describing business processes;

generate a process-ware text representation model based on the unstructured data source information; and

execute the continuously adaptive business process model in the execution environment,

wherein discovering the particular one business process model comprises defining the particular one business process model, and the unstructured data source information comprises at least one of;

electronic device and sensor information, and text from;

process manuals, schedules, plans, policies, rules, software applications and electronic communications.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

generate a status knowledge graph including a second parse-tree for process fragments based on the discovered new goals and the extracted entity information; and

generate logical expressions based on the model knowledge graph and the status knowledge graph.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

generate a process knowledge graph including a parse-tree for process fragments based on process fragments and a set of actionable statements and business constraints; and

map process descriptions to executables,

wherein all attributes of an action are linked to the action with at least one link.