Computing dependent and conflicting changes of business process models

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9959509-B2
Application number	US-32359608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2008
Priority date	Nov 26, 2008
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

Changing a business process model involves several aspects: (1) given a set of change operations, dependencies and conflicts are encoded in dependency and conflict matrices; (2) given a change sequence for a process model M, the change sequence is broken up into subsequences such that operations from different subsequences are independent; (3) given a change sequence for a process model V 1 and another change sequence for a process model V 2 , conflicts between operations in the different change sequences are determined; (4) the process structure tree can be used to localize dependency computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining dependencies; and (5) the process structure tree can be used to localize conflict computations, yielding a more efficient approach to determining conflicts.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a processor based on instructions of a memory accessed by the processor, the method comprises creating a consolidated process model from at least two sub-models stored in the memory while resolving conflicts and dependencies between the at least two sub-models, the method comprising:
specifying, by the processor, a plurality of change operations of the at least two sub-models,
the at least two sub-models including control nodes having a decision node, a merge node, a fork node, a join node, an initial node and a final node,
the at least two sub-models including extension fragments enabling a representation of a decomposition of the at least two sub-models,
the extension fragments including at least one of an alternative fragment having the decision node and the merge node, a concurrent fragment having the fork node and the join node, and a complex fragment including a combination of the control nodes;

determining, by the processor, a plurality of critical pairs between the specified plurality of change operations;
deriving, by the processor, a dependency matrix for the specified plurality of change operations by specifying the dependencies for each critical pair in terms of operation parameters, the dependencies being captured by the dependency matrix, wherein a joint process structure tree is utilized to optimize the dependencies;
deriving, by the processor, a conflict matrix for the specified plurality of change operations by specifying the conflicts for each critical pair in terms of the operation parameters, the conflicts being captured by the conflict matrix;
determining as the conflicts, by the processor, conflicting change sequences from the specified plurality of change operations,
wherein if any conflicting change sequences are determined then the conflicting change sequences are presented for resolution;
resolving, by the processor, each of the conflicting change sequences when presented for resolution to produce a corresponding resolved conflict of a plurality of resolved conflicts by selecting which operations of the specified plurality of change operations to commit in accordance with user input that identifies one of a plurality of conflict resolutions;
determining, by the processor, independent subsequences from the specified plurality of change operations based on the dependency matrix;
determining, by the processor, conflicting subsequences from the specified plurality of change operations based on the conflict matrix; and
merging, by the processor, the independent subsequences and the conflicting subsequences to create the consolidated process model,
wherein determining, as the conflicts, the conflicting change sequences from the specified plurality of change operations comprises:
iterating, by the processor, over all subsequence pairs for the change sequences such that, for each of the subsequence pairs performing a pair-wise comparison of any two change operations of the specified plurality of change operations and identifying whether or not the any two change operations of the specified plurality of change operations are in conflict, and
if in conflict, then presenting, by the processor, the conflicting change sequences for resolution,

wherein the resolving of each of the conflicting change sequences includes:
unifying conflicting change sequences,
applying an insert fragment operation on the consolidated process model,
presenting two new conflicts for selection,
identifying which change sequence to select based on the user input, and
producing the change sequence as a resolved conflict,
wherein the joint process structure tree is constructed by constructing individual process structure trees and combining the control nodes based on a given matching of elements used to derive a matching of the extension fragments to reduce a number of the pair-wise comparison for a given one of the plurality of change operations.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising logging, by the processor, any selected operations in at least one change log.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein deriving the dependency matrix comprises:
determining as the dependencies, by the processor, type-level dependencies between each of two of the change operations of the specified plurality of change operations; and
expressing, by the processor, each type-level dependency in terms of the operation parameters of the specified plurality of change operations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein deriving the conflict matrix comprises:
determining as the conflicts, by the processor, type-level conflicts between each of two of the change operations of the specified plurality of change operations; and
expressing, by the processor, each potential conflict between each of the critical pairs in terms of the operation parameters of the specified plurality of change operations.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the independent subsequences comprises:
performing, by the processor, a pair-wise comparison of the specified plurality of change operations in a change sequence to detect the dependencies between any two change operations of the specified plurality of change operations;
determining, by the processor, transitive dependencies involving determining of connected components; and
breaking up, by the processor, a change sequence into subsequences,
wherein any of the change operations of the specified plurality of change operations in disjoint subsequences are independent, and
wherein any of the change operations of the specified plurality of change operations in the same subsequence are dependent.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of conflict resolutions comprises:
selection of subsequence;
unification of operations in conflict;
performing a combination of the operations in conflict; and
performing both of the operations in conflict.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the consolidated process model executes in any order all of the specified plurality of change operations that correspond to the independent subsequences.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the consolidated process model executes selected operations in a sequence of the specified plurality of change operations if none of the selected operations are independent.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of resolved conflicts is incorporated into the merging of the independent subsequences and the conflicting subsequences when creating the consolidated process model.

Assignees

• Kuester Jochen M
• Gerth Christian
• IBM

Inventors

• Kuester Jochen M
• Gerth Christian

Classifications

• G06Q10/067

  Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G06Q10/06375

  Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change · CPC title

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title