System for presenting and managing enterprise architectures

• US 6,424,979 B1
• Filed: 12/30/1998
• Issued: 07/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Original Assignee: American Management Systems, Incorporated (CGI, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richards, Matthew Todd, Rocchio, Sheila Caroline, Zipkin, David Samuel, Gantz, Stephen David, Livingston, Eric Bruce, Vogt, Lisa Conners
• Primary Examiner(s): Metjahic, Safet
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US09/223,018
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/100, 707/101, 707/104, 707/9, 707/104.1, 707/501.1, 707/203, 707/511, 709/202, 714/100
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A system providing views of a technical architecture of an enterprise that take into account the content type interest, level of detail and time frame of desired information. A user, with a browser interface, selects a portal specifying the type of content to be viewed. A profile of the user indicates the level of detail and time frame of information to be obtained. The interface provides the user'"'"'s selection of desired information within the portal in the form of a page request that is converted into queries of a database that seek content satisfying the type, level of detail and time frame attributes of the request. The content is formed into a web page and provided to the interface by the web server. Content is separated into atomic units allowing the information to be rearranged responsive to each user'"'"'s needs.

Claims

1. A technical architecture management system, comprising:

a content repository storing units of a technical architecture in a first format and storing relationships between the units, wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said content repository produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives and said system further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired; and

an assembler accessing the units in said repository relevant to a user request, filtering the units responsive to the user request and presenting the units in a second viewable format.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said second format comprises one of hypertext mark-up language and extensible mark-up language.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the units are filtered using attributes of content type, time frame, and level of detail.

4. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the attributes comprise unit subject matter, unit update date, and unit creation date.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the units are atomic information units.

6. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the relationships include stored unit type, nature, use, commonality, shared use and interdependency.

7. An enterprise architecture management system, comprising:

a portal allowing a user to specify a view of technical architecture content to be viewed; and

a data storage and retrieval system retrieving the content specified responsive to a content type, level of detail, and time frame attributes, wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said data storage and retrieval system produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives and said system further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.

8. An enterprise architecture management system, comprising:

a browser interface allowing a user to specify a view of technical architecture content to be viewed; and

a data storage and retrieval system retrieving the content specified responsive to a content level of detail and time frame attributes, wherein the content is separated into atomic information units, and wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said data storage and retrieval system produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives and said system further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.

9. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the level of detail attribute comprises low, medium and high.

10. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the time frame attribute comprises current, tactical and long term.

11. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the user specifies a view portal which includes an initial level of detail and an initial time frame.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein each portal specifies a type of content.

13. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the portal provides a view of content with at most four levels.

14. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the users specifies one of a technocentric portal, a management and planning portal, a development portal and an enterprise architecture portal.

15. A system as recited in claim 14, wherein a same content can be retrieved using different portals.

16. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the content is retrieved and displayed responsive to the identity of the user.

17. A system as recited in claim 16, wherein identity of the user corresponds to a profile and the content is retrieved and displayed responsive to the profile.

18. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein the profile specifies level of detail, time frame and content type.

19. A system as recited in claim 18, further comprising a toolbox through which the profile level of detail, time frame and content type can be selected.

20. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the message is an e-mail message.

21. A system as recited in claim 8, wherein the message includes the content.

22. An enterprise architecture management system, comprising:

a client processor including a browser interface allowing a user to specify a view of technical architecture content to be viewed by making a page request including at least two content specifying attributes;

a web server coupled to the client processor and relaying the page request;

an object server coupled to the web server, producing queries to obtain the content;

a database server responding to the queries with the desired content, the object server assembling the content into a web page which is supplied to said client processor and displayed by the browser interface, wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said server produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives and said server further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.

23. A technical architecture management system, comprising:

a user interface allowing a user to specify a view of a technical architecture content via a portal comprising one of a technocentric portal, a management and planning portal, and a development portal, and a user profile specifying a time frame and a level of detail, and producing user request attributes;

a content repository storing atomic information units of the technical architecture in a first format and storing relationships between the units; and

an assembler accessing the units in said repository relevant to a user request, filtering the units responsive to the user request attributes of time frame comprising current, tactical and long term, level of detail comprising low, medium and high detail, and content type, and presenting the units in a second viewable hypertext mark-up language format, wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said repository produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives, and said repository further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.

24. A document view process, comprising:

allowing a user to specify a level of detail of a view of information descriptive of content of an enterprise technical architecture to be viewed, where the content comprises an owner and expiration date;

producing an update notification when the expiration date arrives and sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired; and

retrieving and displaying the enterprise technical architecture content responsive to the specified level of detail and time frame.

25. A process as recited in claim 24, wherein the content is divided into atomic information units.

26. A storage medium for controlling a computer and including a process of

specifying a level of detail and time frame of technical architecture content to be retrieved where the content comprises an owner and expiration date;

producing an update notification when the expiration date arrives and sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired; and

retrieving and displaying the content specified responsive to the specified level of detail and time frame.

27. A method for navigating an electronic representation of the technical architecture of an enterprise, comprising:

storing an electronic representation of a multidimensional technical architecture having different levels of detail, time frames, an owner, and an expiration date;

automatically determining a level of detail corresponding to how a user uses the technical architecture;

displaying to the user a dynamic graphical view of the technical architecture based on the determined level of detail and a specified time frame of the architecture; and

producing an update notification when the expiration date arrives and sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.

28. An enterprise architecture management system, comprising:

a browser interface allowing a user to specify a view of technical architecture content to be viewed; and

a data storage and retrieval system retrieving the content specified responsive to a content level of detail and time frame attributes, wherein the content includes an owner and expiration date, said data storage and retrieval system produces an update notification when the expiration date arrives and said system further comprises a message system sending a message to the owner indicating the content has expired.