System and method for business process space definition
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsEdward Barnes Boden, Dennis Gregory Geiser, Frank Vincent Paxhia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for representing business processes such as in a workflow model. Each of a plurality of processes is defined as a 3-tuple including a noun, a verb and an attribute, and a selected process is displayed as a point in navigation space. In this manner, business processes are classified and organized in terms of a 3-dimensional process navigation space facilitating process identification, decomposition and definition by traversal of this space.
Claims16
Method for representing business processes comprising the steps of:
- defining each of a plurality of processes as a 3-tuple including a noun, a verb and an attribute;
- and
- displaying a selected process as a point in navigation space;
- responsive to user selection of a zoom in action in connection with a selected process point, determining if said selected process point is zoomable;
- and, if so
- highlighting in a new navigation space the process points referenced by selected process point definitions responsive to user selection of a zoom operation with respect to a first process displayed in a first navigation space in a first window, opening a second window to display the zoomed to process space in a second navigation space, and highlighting said first process point in said first window.
Method for relating business processes to a business organization and roles of people, comprising the steps of:
- defining each of a plurality of processes as a 3-tuple including a noun, a verb and an attribute;
- displaying selection lists, including a noun selection list, a verb selection list and an attribute selection list;
- and
- displaying said plurality of processes as a collection of points in navigation space representing a logical hierarchy of relations between and among said business processes accessible responsive to user selection of a 3-tuple to determine process definition and execution ownership.
Method for delivering workflow solutions that are immediately useful for customers and readily modified by said customers, comprising the steps of:
- providing to a customer a generic business process representation including a set of points in n-dimensional space, each point including at least one verb dimension, at least one noun dimension, and at least one attributes dimension;
- and
- enabling said customer by selecting a said point to modify said representation for the process represented by said point by selectively adding, deleting and changing a set of actions representing said verb dimension, a set of managed resource objects representing said noun dimension, and a set of expressions representing said attributes dimension, each said expression being capable of evaluation to a Boolean value.
Method for capturing in workflow solutions the policies a business uses to guide its activities, comprising the steps of:
- visually displaying in a display panel a navigation space and a plurality of scrollable lists including a noun list, a verbs list and an attributes list;
- responsive to selection of a noun list entry, a verbs list entry, and an attributes list entry, highlighting in said navigation space a point representing a process tuple;
- responsive to selection of two entries from two of said lists, highlighting in said navigation space a highlighted plane of points representing process tuples for all entries in the list not selected;
- responsive to selection of a highlighted point displaying the definition of the process represented by said highlighted point.
Method for making known within an overall business context processes impacted by a policy, comprising the steps of:
- visually displaying in a display panel a navigation space and a plurality of scrollable lists including a noun list, a verbs list and an attributes list;
- representing in said navigation space a set of points in n-dimensional space, each said point being a process tuple having a verb dimension, a noun dimension, and an attributes dimension;
- responsive to selection of a policy in said attributes list, highlighting in said navigation space all process tuples representing process points including said policy.
Method for enabling understanding of the mechanisms, interactions and inter-relationships of a business process, comprising the steps of:
- representing said business process as a set of points in n-dimensional space including at least one verb dimension, at least one noun dimension, and at least one attributes dimension;
- navigating said space by selecting and opening a process point to display another process representation;
- and
- extending said space selectively by redefining said dimensions and grouping scalar definitions into super scalar values.
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for displaying representations of business processes, the computer
- readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising:
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect defining each of a plurality of processes as a 3-tuple including a noun, a verb and an attribute;
- and
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect displaying a selected process as a point in navigation space;
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect responsive to user selection of a zoom in action in connection with a selected process point, determining if said selected process point is zoomable;
- and, if so highlighting in a new navigation space the process points referenced by selected process point definitions;
- and
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect responsive to user selection of a zoom operation with respect to a first process displayed in a first navigation space in a first window, opening a second window to display the zoomed to process space in a second navigation space, and highlighting said first process point in said first window.
A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for relating business processes to a business organization and roles of people, said method steps comprising:
- defining each of a plurality of processes as a 3-tuple including a noun, a verb and an attribute;
- displaying selection lists, including a noun selection list, a verb selection list and an attribute selection list;
- and
- displaying said plurality of processes as a collection of points in navigation space representing a logical hierarchy of relations between and among said business processes accessible responsive to user selection of a 3-tuple to determine process definition and execution ownership.
System for making known within an overall business context processes impacted by a policy, comprising:
- means for visually displaying in a display panel a navigation space and a plurality of scrollable lists including a noun list, a verbs list and an attributes list;
- means for representing in said navigation space a set of points in n-dimensional space, each said point being a process tuple having a verb dimension, a noun dimension, and an attributes dimension;
- and
- means responsive to selection of a policy in said attributes list, highlighting in said navigation space all process tuples representing process points including said policy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.