Product knowledge management

• US 20040078725A1
• Filed: 12/13/2002
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bingham, Paris E. Jr., Martin, Rex G., Treece, Alan J., Helgren, Matthew J., Little, Mike E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,146,535 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2257 using expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/00 Computing arrangements using knowledge-based models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

A system for creating and editing checks for a knowledge automation engine to use in detecting product issues on products. A knowledge automation engine may evaluate a check against a fact to detect a product issue on a product and provide a client of the product remediation information. A check may contain a product issue description, a rule to evaluate against a fact in order to detect the product issue, and remediation information to help a client address the product issue if the product issue is detected on the product. Product issues may include product installation validation and known product bugs. Facts used by the knowledge automation engine may include product configuration facts. Statistics on check execution results may be accumulated to provide additional information on products through their life cycle.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a knowledge repository configured to store product knowledge for a plurality of products, wherein the product knowledge comprises one or more checks, wherein each check comprises a rule to detect an issue for one or more products and remediation information for the issue;

a knowledge management service comprising;

a check management interface for managing checks in the knowledge repository, wherein the check management interface is accessible over a network, and wherein the check management interface is configured to provide a standard interface for adding checks to the knowledge repository; and

a knowledge repository interface configured to provide access to the product knowledge in the knowledge repository for one or more applications; and

wherein a plurality of the checks are configured to be automatically evaluated against a set of facts to detect the presence of their respective issues in a particular product configuration, wherein the set of facts describe the particular product configuration.

2. The system as described in claim 1, further comprising a knowledge automation engine configured to receive a set of checks from the knowledge repository and to receive a set of facts describing a product configuration, wherein the knowledge automation engine is configured to automatically evaluate the set of checks against the set of facts to determine if any issues specified by the set of checks exist for the product configuration.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the knowledge automation engine is further configured to generate a report indicating issues identified to exist for the product configuration and the remediation information for each identified issue.

4. The system as recited in claim 2, further comprising a fact repository configured to store product configuration facts accessible by the rules engine for evaluating the checks.

5. The system as recited in claim 2, further comprising a fact repository configured to store facts describing product configuration for a plurality of installed products, wherein the one or more applications include a preemptive product issue identification application configured to initiate an evaluation by the knowledge automation engine of a set of the checks from the knowledge repository against facts from the fact repository to preemptively identify issues for one or more of the installed products.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the standard interface of the check management interface is configured for adding or editing checks for a particular product at different stages of the product'"'"'s life cycle.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the standard interface of the check management interface is configured for adding or editing checks for a particular product by different clients having different roles in regard to the product.

8. A method, comprising:

creating checks for a plurality of products, wherein each check is created in a standard format and comprises a rule to detect an issue for one or more products and remediation information for the issue;

storing the checks in a product knowledge repository, wherein the product knowledge repository is accessible over a network;

managing the checks in the product knowledge repository, wherein the managing comprises editing existing checks or adding new checks for each product at different product life cycle stages;

accessing the product knowledge repository to evaluate a set of the checks for a particular product against a set of facts describing a configuration of the product to detect the presence of respective issues for the configuration of the product.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein a product in the plurality of products is a computer system accessible over the network.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the product issue detectable by a check in the set of checks is system installation validation.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the product issue detectable by a check in the set of checks is a known product bug.

12. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein said accessing the product knowledge repository to evaluate a set of the checks for a particular product against a set of facts describing a configuration of the product to detect the presence of respective issues for the configuration of the product is performed locally by the product accessing the product knowledge repository over the network.

13. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising storing the set of facts describing a configuration of the product in a fact repository.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the facts describing a configuration of the product stored in the fact repository are updated by collecting the facts about the product and storing the collected facts in the fact repository.

15. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the rules on the set of checks are stored in knowledge predicate language.

16. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the set of checks is executed by a knowledge automation engine accessible by the product over the network.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising querying a fact collector to collect a needed fact not found in said fact repository from alternate fact sources, wherein said fact collector sends the needed fact to the knowledge automation engine.

18. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising transmitting the remediation information to a client of the product to address the product issue on the product using the remediation information.

19. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising automatically remedying the product issue on the product detected by the set of checks using the remediation information on the set of checks.

20. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check usage rates.

21. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check success rates.

22. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check failure rates.

23. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise product issue correction rates.

27. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, wherein the product issue detectable by a check in the set of checks is a known product bug.

28. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, wherein said accessing the product knowledge repository to evaluate a set of the checks for a particular product against a set of facts describing a configuration of the product to detect the presence of respective issues for the configuration of the product is performed locally by the product accessing the product knowledge repository over the network.

29. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising storing the set of facts describing a configuration of the product in a fact repository.

30. The carrier medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the facts describing a configuration of the product stored in the fact repository are updated by collecting the facts about the product and storing the collected facts in the fact repository.

31. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, wherein the rules on the set of checks are stored in knowledge predicate language.

32. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, wherein the set of checks is executed by a knowledge automation engine accessible by the product over the network.

33. The carrier medium as recited in claim 16, further comprising querying a fact collector to collect a needed fact not found in said fact repository from alternate fact sources, wherein said fact collector sends the needed fact to the knowledge automation engine.

34. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising transmitting the remediation information to a client of the product to address the product issue on the product using the remediation information.

35. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising automatically remedying the product issue on the product detected by the set of checks using the remediation information on the set of checks.

36. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check usage rates.

37. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check success rates.

38. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise check failure rates.

39. The carrier medium as recited in claim 8, further comprising collecting statistical facts from the product related to the product issues, wherein the statistical facts comprise product issue correction rates.

24. A carrier medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to:

creating checks for a plurality of products, wherein each check is created in a standard format and comprises a rule to detect an issue for one or more products and remediation information for the issue;

storing the checks in a product knowledge repository, wherein the product knowledge repository is accessible over a network;

managing the checks in the product knowledge repository, wherein the managing comprises editing existing checks or adding new checks for each product at different product life cycle stages;

accessing the product knowledge repository to evaluate a set of the checks for a particular product against a set of facts describing a configuration of the product to detect the presence of respective issues for the configuration of the product.

25. The carrier medium as recited in claim 24, wherein a product in the plurality of products is a computer system accessible over the network.

26. The carrier medium as recited in claim 24, wherein the product issue detectable by a check in the set of checks is system installation validation.