US 9,003,430 B2Granted

Dynamic transfer of selected business process instance state

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsJudah M. Diament, Aliza R. Heching, Matthias Kloppmann

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Abstract

Business processes that may be affected by events, conditions or circumstances that were unforeseen or undefined at modeling time (referred to as unforeseen events) are modeled and/or executed. Responsive to an indication of such an event during process execution, a transfer is performed from the process, in which selected data is stored and the process is terminated. The selected data may then be used by a target process. The target process may be, for instance, a new version of the same process, the same process or a different process. The target process may or may not have existed at the time the process was deployed.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method of managing processes of a processing environment, said method comprising:

obtaining, by a processor of the processing environment, an indication that a transfer event defined for a process executing within the processing environment is to be performed, the indication based on an occurrence of a particular event, and wherein the transfer event is explicitly included in the process at a point in the process at which selected data is to be stored and the process is to be terminated based on performing the transfer event, the transfer event being explicitly included in the process by including a transfer event indicator in a process model used to instantiate the process, the transfer event indicator being one indicator, of a plurality of indicators, selected for inclusion depending on when the process is to transfer relative to performance of a particular activity defined within the process model;
and
performing, by the processor based on the obtaining, the transfer event to transfer out of the process, the transfer including storing selected data of the process and terminating the process, the selected data including a portion of the data of the process that is relevant for the transfer, wherein another portion of the data of the process is unselected, wherein the selected data comprises at least one of at least a portion of business state and at least a portion of technical state of the process, and wherein the unselected data comprises execution state of the process, the at least a portion of business state comprising a collection of elements within the process model used to instantiate the process that represent data whose content and value are defined at a level of a business need that the process model addresses, the at least a portion of technical state comprising a collection of one or more elements within the process that do not exist at the business level but are used to execute the process model, and the execution state comprising a collection of runtime artifacts specific to a runtime used to execute the process model.

A computer system for managing processes of a processing environment, said computer system comprising:

a memory;
and
a processor in communications with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising:
obtaining an indication that a transfer event defined for a process executing within the processing environment is to be performed, the indication based on an occurrence of a particular event, and wherein the transfer event is explicitly included in the process at a point in the process at which selected data is to be stored and the process is to be terminated based on performing the transfer event, the transfer event being explicitly included in the process by including a transfer event indicator in a process model used to instantiate the process, the transfer event indicator being one indicator, of a plurality of indicators, selected for inclusion depending on when the process is to transfer relative to performance of a particular activity defined within the process model;
and
performing, based on the obtaining, the transfer event to transfer out of the process, the transfer including storing selected data of the process and terminating the process, the selected data including a portion of the data of the process that is relevant for the transfer, wherein another portion of the data of the process is unselected, wherein the selected data comprises at least one of at least a portion of business state and at least a portion of technical state of the process, and wherein the unselected data comprises execution state of the process, the at least a portion of business state comprising a collection of elements within the process model used to instantiate the process that represent data whose content and value are defined at a level of a business need that the process model addresses, the at least a portion of technical state comprising a collection of one or more elements within the process that do not exist at the business level but are used to execute the process model, and the execution state comprising a collection of runtime artifacts specific to a runtime used to execute the process model.

3 more elements

A computer program product for managing processes of a processing environment, said computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
obtaining an indication that a transfer event defined for a process executing within the processing environment is to be performed, the indication based on an occurrence of a particular event, and wherein the transfer event is explicitly included in the process at a point in the process at which selected data is to be stored and the process is to be terminated based on performing the transfer event, the transfer event being explicitly included in the process by including a transfer event indicator in a process model used to instantiate the process, the transfer event indicator being one indicator, of a plurality of indicators, selected for inclusion depending on when the process is to transfer relative to performance of a particular activity defined within the process model;
and
performing, based on the obtaining, the transfer event to transfer out of the process, the transfer including storing selected data of the process and terminating the process, the selected data including a portion of the data of the process that is relevant for the transfer, wherein another portion of the data of the process is unselected, wherein the selected data comprises at least one of at least a portion of business state and at least a portion of technical state of the process, and wherein the unselected data comprises execution state of the process, the at least a portion of business state comprising a collection of elements within the process model used to instantiate the process that represent data whose content and value are defined at a level of a business need that the process model addresses, the at least a portion of technical state comprising a collection of one or more elements within the process that do not exist at the business level but are used to execute the process model, and the execution state comprising a collection of runtime artifacts specific to a runtime used to execute the process model.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

A method of managing processes of a processing environment, said method comprising:

obtaining, by a processor of the processing environment, an indication that a transfer event defined for a process executing within the processing environment is to be performed, the indication based on an occurrence of a particular event, and wherein the transfer event is explicitly included in the process at a point in the process at which selected data is to be stored and the process is to be terminated based on performing the transfer event, the transfer event being explicitly included in the process by including a transfer event indicator in a process model used to instantiate the process, the transfer event indicator being one indicator, of a plurality of indicators, selected for inclusion depending on when the process is to transfer relative to performance of a particular activity defined within the process model;
and
performing, by the processor based on the obtaining, the transfer event to transfer out of the process, the transfer including storing selected data of the process and terminating the process, the selected data including a portion of the data of the process that is relevant for the transfer, wherein another portion of the data of the process is unselected, wherein the selected data comprises at least one of at least a portion of business state and at least a portion of technical state of the process, and wherein the unselected data comprises execution state of the process, the at least a portion of business state comprising a collection of elements within the process model used to instantiate the process that represent data whose content and value are defined at a level of a business need that the process model addresses, the at least a portion of technical state comprising a collection of one or more elements within the process that do not exist at the business level but are used to execute the process model, and the execution state comprising a collection of runtime artifacts specific to a runtime used to execute the process model.