Automated change monitoring and improvement recommendation system for incident reduction in information technology infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10044563-B2
Application number	US-201514978710-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2015
Priority date	Dec 22, 2015
Publication date	Aug 7, 2018
Grant date	Aug 7, 2018

Abstract

A method includes obtaining, from a service management database, one or more change tickets and one or more incident tickets relating to an information technology infrastructure, defining one or more change-incident pairs based on linkages between the incident tickets and the change tickets, identifying, from the change-incident pairs, one or more dimensions affecting outcomes of implementation of one or more change types, generating at least one recommendation for altering implementation of subsequent changes of a given change type to the information technology infrastructure based on the identified dimensions, applying the at least one recommendation to the implementation of one or more subsequent changes of the given change type to configuration items in the information technology infrastructure, monitoring the information technology infrastructure to determine outcomes of the subsequent changes of the given change type, and modifying the at least one recommendation responsive to the monitoring.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, from a service management database, one or more change tickets and one or more incident tickets relating to an information technology infrastructure;
defining one or more change-incident pairs based on linkages between the incident tickets and the change tickets;
identifying one or more dimensions affecting outcomes of implementation of one or more change types based on the change-incident pairs;
generating at least one recommendation for altering implementation of subsequent changes of a given change type to the information technology infrastructure based on the identified dimensions;
applying said at least one recommendation to the implementation of one or more subsequent changes of the given change type to configuration items in the information technology infrastructure;
monitoring the information technology infrastructure to determine outcomes of the subsequent changes of the given change type; and
modifying said at least one recommendation responsive to said monitoring;
wherein the method is performed by at least one processing device coupled to the information technology infrastructure over at least one network;
wherein identifying the one or more dimensions affecting outcomes of the one or more change types comprises dividing the data into two or more categories based on outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure;
wherein the two or more categories comprise a first category associated with negative outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure and a second category associated with positive outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure;
wherein each of the historical changes is associated with a plurality of dimensions, the plurality of dimensions comprising two or more of: a change type, an owner group, a time, a priority, a configuration item, a risk and an urgency; and
further comprising generating a weighted probability tree for the historical changes, the weighted probability tree comprising a plurality of levels including a first level based on the two or more categories and one or more additional levels based on the plurality of dimensions associated with the historical changes.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration items in the information technology infrastructure comprises one or more servers, databases, middleware, software and business applications.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the subsequent changes comprises measuring changes in outcome for the given change type resulting from applying said at least one recommendation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein modifying said at least one recommendation is based on the measured changes in outcome for the given change type.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein measuring changes in outcome for the given change type comprises checking whether a percentage of changes of the given change type having negative outcomes is reduced.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein weights used in the weighted probability tree are determined utilizing at least one of statistical analysis and machine learning.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein generating said at least one recommendation comprises:
identifying a first path to a first leaf in the first category of the weighted probability tree;
determining if one or more dimensions of the first leaf are statistically significant based on comparing the first leaf in the first category with a corresponding first leaf in the second category of the weighted probability tree; and
generating a given recommendation responsive to determining that the one or more dimensions of the first leaf are statistically significant.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first leaf comprises a maximum leaf in the first category of the weighted probability tree, the maximum leaf being associated with a greatest proportion of the historical changes in the first category.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the given recommendation comprises at least one action mapped to one or more of the dimensions associated with the first leaf.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the given recommendation identifies a particular change type and a particular class of configuration items in the information technology infrastructure.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the given recommendation further identifies at least one of: a particular owner group; a particular priority; and a particular time.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein monitoring the information technology infrastructure comprises dynamically updating paths of the weighted probability tree taking into account the one or more subsequent changes.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising identifying an adjustment in a probability of the first path to the first leaf resulting from dynamically updating the weighted probability tree, the adjustment in the probability of the first path to the first leaf being used to determine outcomes of the subsequent changes of the given change type.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising identifying an adjustment in a probability of the first path to the first leaf relative to a second path to a second leaf in the weighted probability tree resulting from dynamically updating the weighted probability tree, the adjustment in the probability of the first path to the first leaf relative to the second path to the second leaf being used to determine outcomes of the subsequent changes of the given change type.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium for storing computer readable program code which, when executed, causes a computer:
to obtain, from a service management database, one or more change tickets and one or more incident tickets relating to an information technology infrastructure;
to define one or more change-incident pairs based on linkages between the incident tickets and the change tickets;
to identify one or more dimensions affecting outcomes of implementation of one or more change types based on the change-incident pairs;
to generate at least one recommendation for altering implementation of subsequent changes of a given change type to the information technology infrastructure based on the identified dimensions;
to apply said at least one recommendation to the implementation of one or more subsequent changes of the given change type to configuration items in the information technology infrastructure;
to monitor the information technology infrastructure to determine outcomes of the subsequent changes of the given change type; and
to modify said at least one recommendation responsive to said monitoring;
wherein the computer is coupled to the information technology infrastructure over at least one network;
wherein identifying the one or more dimensions affecting outcomes of the one or more change types comprises dividing the data into two or more categories based on outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure;
wherein the two or more categories comprise a first category associated with negative outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure and a second category associated with positive outcomes of historical changes to the information technology infrastructure;
wherein each of the historical changes is associated with a plurality of dimensions, the plurality of dimensions comprising two or more of: a change type, an owner group, a time, a priority, a configuration item, a risk and an urgency; and
wherein the computer readable program code, when executed, further cau

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Guven Sinem
• Murthy Karin
• Shwartz Larisa

Classifications

• G06N5/01

  Dynamic search techniques; Heuristics; Dynamic trees; Branch-and-bound · CPC title

• G06N7/01

  Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks · CPC title

• G06F16/2246

  Trees, e.g. B+trees · CPC title

• H04L41/5074

  Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets · CPC title

• H04L41/0813 Primary

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title