Proactive notifications for robotic process automation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11635953-B2
Application number	US-202117314360-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2021
Priority date	May 7, 2021
Publication date	Apr 25, 2023
Grant date	Apr 25, 2023

Abstract

An example embodiment involves persistent storage defining a first configuration item representing an application deployed within a network, a second configuration item representing a software program that is deployable within the network, and a relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item. One or more processors may be configured to: (i) receive an indication that a change has been applied to the application or has been arranged to be applied to the application; (ii) identify the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item; (iii) based on the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, determine that the change can affect operation of the software program; and (iv) in response to determining that the change can affect operation of the software program, provide a notification of the change to an agent associated with the software program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving an indication that a change has been arranged to be applied to a robotic process automation deployed within a network, wherein persistent storage defines a first configuration item representing the robotic process automation, a second configuration item representing a software program that is deployable within the network, and a relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, wherein the relationship indicates that the software program uses the robotic process automation;
in response to receiving the indication that the change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation, identifying the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item;
based on the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, determining that the change can affect operation of the software program, wherein determining that the change can affect operation of the software program comprises determining that the change is to a network address at which the robotic process automation is hosted; and
in response to determining that the change can affect operation of the software program, providing a notification of the change to an agent associated with the software program.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines a third configuration item representing a second software program that is deployable within the network, and a second relationship between the first configuration item and the third configuration item, wherein the second relationship indicates that the second software program uses the robotic process automation and that the robotic process automation is used by the second software program, the computer-implemented method further comprising:
in response to receiving the indication that the change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation, identifying the second relationship between the first configuration item and the third configuration item;
based on the second relationship between the first configuration item and the third configuration item, determining that the change can affect operation of the second software program; and
in response to determining that the change can affect operation of the second software program, providing a second notification of the change to a second agent associated with the second software program.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines a third configuration item representing a second robotic process automation deployed within the network, and a second relationship between the second configuration item and the third configuration item, wherein the second relationship indicates that the software program uses the second robotic process automation and that the second robotic process automation is used by the software program, the computer-implemented method further comprising:
receiving a second indication that a second change has been arranged to be applied to the second robotic process automation;
in response to receiving the second indication that the second change has been arranged to be applied to the second robotic process automation, identifying the second relationship between the second configuration item and the third configuration item;
based on the second relationship between the second configuration item and the third configuration item, determining that the second change can affect operation of the software program; and
in response to determining that the second change can affect operation of the software program, providing a second notification of the second change to the agent associated with the software program.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines records of incidents related to the network, the computer-implemented method further comprising:
receiving a new record of an incident related to the software program experiencing a failure when attempting to use the robotic process automation; and
based on the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, providing a second notification of the new record to a second agent associated with the robotic process automation.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines records of incidents related to the network, the computer-implemented method further comprising:
receiving a new record of an incident related to a failure when attempting to use the robotic process automation; and
based on the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, providing a second notification of the new record to the agent associated with the software program.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines records of change requests related to the network, and wherein receiving the indication that the change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation comprises receiving a change request that references the first configuration item.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage also defines a third configuration item representing an execution environment, and a second relationship between the second configuration item and the third configuration item, and wherein the second relationship indicates that the software program executes within the execution environment.

8. A system comprising:
persistent storage defining a first configuration item representing a robotic process automation deployed within a network, a second configuration item representing a software program that is deployable within the network, and a relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, wherein the relationship indicates that the software program uses the robotic process automation;
and one or more processors configured to:
receive an indication that a change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation;
in response to receiving the indication that the change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation, identify the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item;
based on the relationship between the first configuration item and the second configuration item, determine that the change can affect operation of the software program, wherein determining that the change can affect operation of the software program comprises determining that the change is to a network address at which the robotic process automation is hosted; and
in response to determining that the change can affect operation of the software program, provide a notification of the change to an agent associated with the software program.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the persistent storage also defines a third configuration item representing a second software program that is deployable within the network, and a second relationship between the first configuration item and the third configuration item, wherein the second relationship indicates that the second software program uses the robotic process automation and that the robotic process automation is used by the second software program, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
in response to receiving the indication that the change has been arranged to be applied to the robotic process automation, identify the second relationship between the first configuration item and the third configuration item;
based on the second relationship between the first configura

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Crane Jonathan
• Damodaran Praveen Minnikaran
• Schroeder Eric
• Bhatnagar Binny

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G06F11/1433

  during software upgrading · CPC title

• G06F11/3006 Primary

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title

• G06F11/3051

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs (verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247) · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title