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 Title: |
US6278977:
Deriving process models for workflow management systems from audit trails
[ Derwent Title ]
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| Country: |
US United States of America
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| Inventor: |
Agrawal, Rakesh; San Jose, CA
Leymann, Frank; Aidlingen, Germany
Roller, Dieter; Schonaich, Germany
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| Assignee: |
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY
other patents from INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION (280070) (approx. 44,393)
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| Published / Filed: |
2001-08-21
/ 1998-07-31
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| Application Number: |
US1998000127448
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| IPC Code: |
Advanced:
G06Q 10/00;
Core:
more...
IPC-7:
G06F 17/60;
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| ECLA Code: |
G06Q10/00F;
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| U.S. Class: |
Current:
705/007;
Original:
705/007;
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| Field of Search: |
707/001,10,100,103,104
705/001,7,8
700/095,100,99,104
706/925,926
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| Priority Number: |
| 1997-08-01 |
EP1997000113299 |
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| Abstract: |
The present invention relates to the area of workflow management systems (WFMS). More particularly the invention is related to a methodology of automatically deriving and steadily improving a process model executed by the WFMS. The current invention dramatically simplifies and automates the process of model a business model of a business process. The invention allows to start just with set of unrelated activities and discover the real world relations between them at a later point in time; data mining and OLAP technologies are exploited for this discovery. The current invention thus proposes a posteriori methodology. For that purpose the precise underlying process model is derived at a later point in time based on audit data collected by the WFMS during the early deployment of a process model.
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| Attorney, Agent or Firm: |
Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser ;
Zarick, Esq., Gail ;
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| Primary / Asst. Examiners: |
Hafiz, Tariq R.; Nguyen, Leslie K.
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| INPADOC Legal Status: |
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Family Legal Status Report
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| Designated Country: |
DE FR GB
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| Family: |
Show 7 known family members
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First Claim:
Show all 8 claims |
Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:
1. A computerized method of automatically adapting a process-model of a business-process,
- said process-model comprising a multitude of activities being part of said business-process;
- said process-model defining all possible allowed sequences of activities of said business-process;
- said method of adapting comprising
- a pattern-collection-step, wherein said pattern-collection-step is based on a current-process-mode, and during said pattern-collection-step each activity being executed is recorded with an audit-trail by audit-trail-records,
- said audit-trail-records encompassing a process-model-instance-identification of a process-model-instance within said activity being executed;
- said audit-trail-records encompassing an activity-identification of said activity being executed; and
- said audit-trail-records encompassing an execution-interval of said activity being executed comprising a starting-time and a termination-time of said activity being executed;
- said method of adapting further comprising
- a pattern-analysis-step analyzing, after a predefined sampling period, said audit-trail-records and generating a next-process-model
- by determining, in a first step based on the current-process-model from the audit-trail-records with identical process-model-instance-identifications, activities, which are processed sequentially being recorded with non-overlapping execution-intervals, and activities, which are in processed in parallel being recorded with overlapping execution-intervals; and
- by adapting in a second step said current-process-model to generate a next-process-model by re-ordering those activities, allowed to be processed in parallel according to the current-process-model but actually having been executed sequentially only, as determined in said first step, into sequential execution order based on the time order of said execution-intervals.
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| Background / Summary: |
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| Drawing Descriptions: |
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| Description: |
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| Forward References: |
Show 43 U.S. patent(s) that reference this one
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| Foreign References: |
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| Other Abstract Info: |
DERABS G1999-108600
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| Other References: |
Bradley P. et al., "Business process re-engineering (BPR)--A study of the software tools currently available", Computers In Industry, NL, Elsevier Science Publishers, vol. 25, No. 3, Mar. 1995, pp. 309-330.
(22 pages)
[ISI abstract]
Inniss, H.A. et al. (1994) "Workflow Management Based on an Object-Oriented Pradigm", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 37, No. 03, p. 185.
Leymann, F. et al. (1994) "Managing Business Processes as an Information Resource", IBM Systems Journal, vol. 33:2, pp. 326-348.
(23 pages)
Cited by 12 patents
[ISI abstract]
Leymann, F. "A Meta Model to Support Modeling and Execution of Processes", pp. 287-294.
Leymann, F. et al. (1994) "Business Process Management with FlowMark", IEEE, pp. 230-234.
Marchak, R. "IBM's FlowMark: Object-Oriented Workflow for Mission-Critical Applications", pp. 1-13.
Spohn, D.J. (1990) "Project Management Environment", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 32, No. 9A, pp. 250-254.
(1994) "IBM FlowMark for OS/2: Model Efficiency Into Your Business", IBM Software Solutions, Second Edition, pp. 1-3.
Anderson, David R. et al., "An Introduction to Management Science: Quantitative Approaches to Decision Making, Third Edition," West Publishing Company 1976. see Chapter 9.*
Kappel, G. et al., "TriGS-flow: Active Object-Oriented Workflow Management." Proceedings of the 28th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 1995.*
Hollingsworth, David. "Workflow Management Coalition: The Workflow Reference Model." Jan. 15, 1995.
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