Data governance: change management based on contextualized dependencies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017288940-A1
Application number	US-201615089858-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 4, 2016
Priority date	Apr 4, 2016
Publication date	Oct 5, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for change management includes providing a dependency graph as an instantiation of a linked resource model in which a plurality of resources are linked by at least one dependency. The resources include at least one source resource and at least one target resource, each of the at least one dependency specifying preconditions on at least one of the at least one source resources for the dependency to be activated and an impact on at least one of the at least one target resources when the dependency is activated. A change to one of the plurality of resources is propagated to at least one other of the plurality of resources in the graph and information based on the propagation is output.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for change management comprising:
providing a dependency graph as an instantiation of a linked resource model in which a plurality of resources are linked by at least one dependency, the resources including at least one source resource and at least one target resource, each of the at least one dependency specifying preconditions on at least one of the at least one source resource for the dependency to be activated and an impact on at least one of the at least one target resources when the dependency is activated; and with a processor, propagating a change to one of the plurality of resources to at least one other of the plurality of resources in the graph; and outputting information based on the propagation.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of resources are selected from concrete resources and abstract resources.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the at least one dependency is assigned to a class of dependencies from a plurality of classes of dependencies, the plurality of dependency classes including conjunctive dependencies and disjunctive dependencies, wherein for a conjunctive dependency if any of the source resources related to that dependency is changed then the dependency is activated, and wherein for a disjunctive dependency, the dependency is activated only if all source resources related to that dependency are changed.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the linked resource model permits a first of the dependencies to be linked to a second of the dependencies in the dependency graph.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the linked resource model permits the first of the dependencies to be of a different class of dependencies from the second of the dependencies.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the linked resource model provides for the first of the dependencies linked to the second of the dependencies by a dependency connector.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein in the dependency graph, objects are represented by nodes, the nodes being linked by directed edges which indicate properties of relationships between linked nodes, the objects including resource nodes and at least one dependency node.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the dependency graph is implemented as a Resource Description Framework (RDF) graph or triple store.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the propagating comprises applying at least one of a forward chaining mechanism and a backward chaining mechanism to propagate changes through the dependency graph.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the forward chaining mechanism comprises, for a source resource from the plurality of resources, and for at least one of the dependencies in the dependency graph which links the source resource to a target resource from the plurality of resources and for which an intention descriptor of the dependency is compatible with the preconditions for the dependency to be activated and is compatible with the impact on the target resource, propagating the change in the source resource to the target resource via the dependency.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising, for at least one iteration, repeating the forward chaining mechanism using a different resource from the plurality of resources as the source resource.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the forward chaining algorithm comprises:
checking that the source resource is not yet in a set of already considered source resources and if so, then adding the source resource to the set; for each dependency that has a RDF triple in a triple store with a from property with respect to the source resource, and where the dependency is compatible with the intention, determining if the precondition and impact of the dependency satisfy the intention and if so, propagating the change in r to all target resources that are linked to the source resource by that dependency, according to the definition of the impact.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the backward chaining mechanism comprises, for a target resource from the plurality of resources for which a change is not detected, and for at least one of the dependencies in the dependency graph which links the target resource to a changed source resource from the plurality of resources and for which an intention descriptor of the dependency is compatible with a chaining intention to be activated and is compatible with an impact on the target resource, propagating the change in the source resource to the target resource via the dependency, according to the definition of the impact.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising repeating the backward chaining mechanism for another target resource from the plurality of resources.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the propagating comprises applying both of the forward chaining mechanism and the backward chaining mechanism.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the output information includes at least one of:
a request to modify at least one external resource which is represented in the graph; and a modified dependency graph.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the dependencies specifies an intent which describes the usage of objects involved in the dependency.

18 . A system comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of claim 1 and a processor in communication with the memory for executing the instructions.

19 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium storing instructions, which when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of claim 1 .

20 . A system for change management comprising:
memory which stores a dependency graph as an instantiation of a linked resource model in which a plurality of resources are linked by at least one dependency, the resources including at least one source resource and at least one target resource, each of the at least one dependency specifying preconditions on at least one of the at least one source resource for the dependency to be activated and an impact on at least one of the at least one target resources when the dependency is activated; a propagation component which propagates a change to one of the plurality of resources to at least one other of the plurality of resources in the dependency graph; an output component which outputs information based on the propagation; and a processor which implements the propagation component and the output component.

21 . A method for change management comprising:
providing a dependency graph as an instantiation of a linked resource model in which a plurality of resources are linked by at least one dependency, the resources including at least one source resource and at least one target resource, each of the at least one dependency specifying preconditions on at least one of the at least one source resource for the dependency to be activated and an impact on at least one of the at least one target resources when the dependency is activated and an intention of the dependency; and with a processor, propagating a change to one of the plurality of resources to at least one other of the plurality of resources in the graph the propagating including applying at least one of: a forward chaining mechanism configured for propagating a change from a source resource to a target resource linked to the source resource by a dependency to satisfy a given intention, and a backward chaining mechanism configured for propagating a change from a

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Lagos Nikolaos
• Vion-Dury Jean-Yves

Classifications

• H04L41/0266 Primary

  using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML] · CPC title

• G06F16/21 Primary

  Design, administration or maintenance of databases · CPC title

• G06F17/2705

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L41/024 Primary

  using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL] · CPC title

• H04L43/045

  for graphical visualisation of monitoring data · CPC title