Systematic discovery of business ontology
AssigneeWal-Mart Stores, Inc.
InventorGary Dewayne Griggs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is provided that implements a more systematic process for obtaining business knowledge that is more efficient and timely. The process automatically reads business documents and produces a business ontology. In one implementation, the process dissects documents into sentences or collection of words that most resembles a sentence. Natural language processing algorithms may be used to identify the role of term within a sentence. Terms and associations resulting from the document analysis are used to specify a business ontology which can be then used to provide input to a software design process, among other business uses.
Claims18
A system for determining a business ontology, the system comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
- perform an analysis of a plurality of business documents, wherein the analysis comprises:
- establishing an analysis scope that includes the plurality of business documents;
- determining a plurality of sentences within the plurality of business documents within the analysis scope, including separating the sentences for analysis;
- identifying terms and associations between terms within each separated sentence of the plurality of sentences, including determining a proximity between at least two of the terms within at least one sentence of the separated sentences, the proximity including a sentence proximity association for terms of the identified terms occurring in the same sentence but not in a same term group, a term proximity association for identifying actions acted upon terms of the identified terms by other terms, and a document proximity association for all verbs in the same business document of the plurality of business documents;
- analyzing the associations including the sentence proximity association, the term proximity association, and the document proximity association;
- after analyzing the terms and associations, identifying frequently-used terms and associations within the plurality of sentences used most within the scope;
- and
- determining a business ontology based on the identified frequently-used terms and associations within the plurality of sentences among the plurality of business documents.
A method for determining a business ontology, the method comprising acts of:
- performing an analysis by a computer system of a plurality of business documents, wherein the analysis comprises acts of:
- establishing an analysis scope that includes the plurality of business documents;
- determining a plurality of sentences within the plurality of business documents within the analysis scope, including separating the sentences for analysis;
- identifying terms and associations between terms within each separated sentence of the plurality of sentences, including determining a proximity between at least two of the terms within at least one sentence of the separated sentences, the proximity including a sentence proximity association for terms of the identified terms occurring in the same sentence but not in a same term group, a term proximity association for identifying actions acted upon terms of the identified terms by other terms, and a document proximity association for all verbs in the same business document of the plurality of business documents;
- analyzing the terms and associations including the sentence proximity association, the term proximity association, and the document proximity association;
- after analyzing the terms and associations, identifying frequently-used terms and associations within the plurality of sentences used most within the scope;
- and
- determining a business ontology based on the identified frequently-used terms and associations within the plurality of sentences among the plurality of business documents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.