Patent Application
20100251207
The present invention generally describes frameworks for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of modeling in a service-oriented architecture.
A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment is a business-centric information technology (IT) architectural approach that supports integrating linked and repeatable business tasks or services. Services may be designed and created leveraging functionality and capability from across applications which can be from the same or different business domains. One objective of SOA is flexibility and agility in business processes and the underlying supporting IT capabilities, which may require the identification and support of variations of one process relative to another, and further to provide a common view of various artifacts produced during an analysis and decomposition.
SOA analysis generally includes modeling of a plurality of SOA artifacts through respective modeling tools. Problems arise in attempting to provide a common view across each model. For example, in the prior art such attempts are done retroactively, capturing only hardened assets. In addition, existing techniques also tend to focus on governance aspects of these hardened assets only.
Methods are provided for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of service oriented architecture modeling. A commonality or variance of a first process to a second process of an initial model plurality of processes is captured, each of the initial model processes having an initial model process format, the commonality or variance stored in a common repository memory device in a repository format different from the initial model process format. Further, a commonality or variance of a third process relative to a fourth process of another model plurality of processes is also captured, the third and fourth processes having an another model process format different from the initial model process format and the repository format, said third-fourth process commonality or variance stored in the common repository memory device in the repository format. At least two processes of the initial model plurality processes are then refined into a refined initial model plurality process as a function of at least one of the stored commonalities and variances, wherein the refining comprises considering any of the stored commonalities and variances.
Service methods are also provided, in some embodiments by a service provider offering to implement, deploy, and/or perform functions for others. In one example, a service provider deploys a computational device infrastructure for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of service oriented architecture modeling according to the method steps described above during a service-oriented architecture analysis phase. Still further, articles of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program in said medium are provided. Such program code comprises instructions which, when executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to perform one or more method and/or process elements described above for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of service oriented architecture modeling. Moreover, systems, articles and programmable devices are also provided, configured for performing one or more method and/or process elements of the current invention for performing variation oriented analysis across aspects of service oriented architecture modeling, for example as described above.
These and other features of the methods, systems and devices according to the present application will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The drawings are not necessarily to scale. The drawings are merely schematic representations, not intended to portray specific parameters of the invention. The drawings are intended to depict only typical embodiments of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements.
For convenience, the Detailed Description of the Invention has the following sections:
I. General Description; and
II. Computerized Implementation.
Examples of SOA aspects and governance processes according to the present invention may be found in the following commonly-owned and co-pending U.S. patent applications or issued U.S. patents, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference: “Identifying a Service Oriented Architecture Shared Services Project”, attorney docket no. END920080252US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Evaluating a Service Oriented Architecture Shared Services Project”, attorney docket no. END920080288US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Service Oriented Architecture Shared Service Inception”, attorney docket no. END920080289US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Service Oriented Architecture Shared Services Elaboration”, attorney docket no. END920080290US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Service Oriented Architecture Shared Services Construction”, attorney docket no. END920080291US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Transitioning to Management of a Service Oriented Architecture Shared Service”, attorney docket no. END920080292US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Service Oriented Architecture Shared Service Management”, attorney docket no. END920080293US1, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “Service Oriented Architecture Shared Service Escalation”, attorney docket no. END920080294US1, filed on (to be provided), and was assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “SOA POLICY VERSIONING”, attorney docket no. END920080316US1-IEN106616, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY EXPLORATION FOR SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE ENVIRONMENTS”, attorney docket no. END920080318US1-IEN106618, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “SOA LIFECYCLE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT”, attorney docket no. END920080319US1-IEN106619, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “ENABLING SOA GOVERNANCE USING A SERVICE LIFECYCLE APPROACH”, attorney docket no. END920080320US1-IEN106620, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “CALIBRATION FRAMEWORK FOR EFFORT ESTIMATION”, attorney docket no. END920080321US1-IEN106621, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “SERVICE PORTFOLIO APPROACH FOR SOA GOVERNANCE”, attorney docket no. END920080386US1-IEN106642, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “SERVICE EVOLUTION APPROACH IN SOA”, attorney docket no. END920080387US1-IEN106643, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “CAPABILITY AND MATURITY-BASED SOA GOVERNANCE”, attorney docket no. END920080388US1-IEN106644, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); “PRIORITIZATION ENABLEMENT FOR SOA GOVERNANCE”, attorney docket no. END920080389US1-IEN106645, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided); and “SOA POLICY ENGINE FRAMEWORK”, attorney docket no. END920080390US1-IEN106646, filed on (to be provided), and assigned application serial no. (to be provided).
At 08 a plurality of processes of another different SOA artifact or process model are considered or analyzed and one or more commonalities and variances of the another model processes are captured, the another-model processes generally sharing a common or complementary format appropriate to that particular model and also different from both the initial given model process format and the repository format. At 10 the captured commonalities and variances of the second another-model model are translated, converted or otherwise stored in the repository format.
At 12 two or more of the initial model plurality processes are refined into an initial model plurality process, the refining a function of the stored repository format commonalities and variances of either or both of the initial-model and another-model processes. More particularly, refining at 12 is configured to, or otherwise enabled to, consider all commonalities and variances stored in the repository format, and thus to consider multiple and divergent model processes otherwise described by different and non-complementary formats (including the present initial-model and another-model processes) in order to refine processes in any one model. Thus, in one example, two initial-model processes may be decomposed into a new decomposed process as a result of considering commonalities and variances of the different second another-model as converted/translated/etc. and stored in the repository format. Process feedback at 14 from the refining at 12 may also provide one or more new models or other feedback data to process models (or to higher-level sourcing for a process) for model processes, including for consideration/analyzing of commonalities and variances at 04.
More particularly, each Business Program Model 40 process 44 comprises associated tasks and meta-data transformed into a standard BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), in some cases directly implementing higher level sourcing 42 into the process 44 BPEL. A Process VOA component 72 is provided by the VOA subsystem 70 and configured to use the BPEL inputs to perform a Process VOA wherein similarities and variations are determined between the Business Program Model 40 processes 44 and stored in a Common VOA repository 80 in a common standard format; in the present example the common standard format is standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, though other formats may be used in other embodiments.
XML SQL data from each Data Model 50 process 52 may be used as a direct input. In some embodiments Data Definition Language (DDL) inputs from the processes 52 may also be transformed or converted into XML Structured Query Language (SQL) format by the Data VOA component 74 or other component (for example as discussed below with respect to
A Service VOA component 76 performs Service VOA on Standard Web Services Description Language (WSDL) format processes 58 and XML Schema Definition (XSD) format processes 56 inputs, wherein similarities and variations are determined and stored in the Common VOA Repository 80 in the standard XML format. And lastly, a Service Component VOA component 78 is also provided to perform Service Component VOA from Standard Composite (or Service Component Architecture (SCA) artifact) process inputs 62, wherein similarities and variations are determined and stored in the Common VOA Repository 80 in standard XML format.
The VOA subsystem 70 uses the commonalities and variances stored in the Repository 80 to provide process feedback, refining and decomposition functions and inputs to an SOA structure 82. More particularly, the Business Model processes BPEL 1 and BPEL 244 may be decomposed or refined into a resultant single SOA Business Model process BPEL.n 84. Further, the Business Model process BPEL.n 84 may also provide a feedback input the Business Model 40 for use in defining and refining the business processes 44 and higher-level sources 42 within, as well as instigate the introduction of a new high level source BP.n 46 in communication with the Business Model 40.
In a similar fashion, the Data Model processes DDL 1 and DDL 252 may be decomposed or refined into a resultant single SOA Data Model process DDL.n 86, which may also provide a feedback input to the Data Model 50 for use in defining and refining Data processes 52; the Service Model 54 processes XSD 1 and XSD 256 may be decomposed/refined into a resultant single SOA Data Model process XSD.n 88 and WSDL 1 and WSDL 258 decomposed/refined into a single SOA Data Model process WSDL.n 92, each also providing feedback input to the Service Model 54; and the Service Component Model 60 processes Composite 1 and Composite 262 may be decomposed/refined into a resultant single SOA Data Model process Composite.n 90, which may also provide a feedback input to the Composite Model 60.
More particularly, artifacts are modeled and specified in respective modeling tools by the Business Processes Modeler 106, a Data Modeler 102, a Service Interfaces Modeler 108 and a Service Component Modeler 104. Prior art systems attempt to provide common view across all of these models retroactively; i.e., only hardened assets are captured. This is already too late since redundant and inflexible capabilities could already have been designed and implemented by this time. In addition, prior art techniques also tend to focus on governance aspects of the hardened assets only. In contrast, the early discovery of commonalities and variations across the related artifacts according to the present invention help in significantly minimizing the implementation of inflexible and redundant services and service components, and approaches according to the present invention may be applied not only to an SOA environment but to any development environment.
The Common VOA Repository 80 (
Thus the VOA subsystem 70 captures commonalities and variations during modeling efforts by the respective Business Process Modeler 106, Data Modeler 102, Service Modeler 108 and Component Modeler 104, each serving inputs to the VOA subsystem 70 utilizing their respective standards as indicated in
The Common VOA Repository 80 serves as a common repository for all VOA artifacts and provides support for searching, comparing and ranking (probability of a match) VOA objects by the VOA Object Searcher 112 and VOA Object Matcher 114. Comparison of VOA artifacts by the subsystem 70 comprehends intra-model relational comparison (e.g.
The present invention thus accelerates the bridging between business process and technology which will result in business agility by performing VOA on work-in-progress artifacts. Allowing for early detection of commonalities and variations enables architectural intervention before a design, though a VOA process according to the present invention may also be conducted during a design phase as well. The present invention also enables the rapid specification of appropriate assets for decomposition to a level required or needed for a detailed design.
The present VOA subsystem 70 enables the discovery of redundant services as well as of new services needed to support business processes and their variations. Said service discovery may be done in a pro-active manner during early phases of a project and may also be applied incrementally during later stages to make any required changes and enhancements. Business process proliferation may be minimized by combining two or more redundant business processes, e.g. those which have similar tasks with a few or minor differences. However, according to the present invention process combination may also be made conditional upon performing a validity check of modeling assets any time during a decomposition process. For example, initially a discovery may indicate that two services are the same or redundant, but a VOA according to the present invention determines that these services are in fact two different non-redundant services due to different service-level agreement (SLA) requirements, data elements, etc.
By providing pro-active techniques (in contrast to the reactive techniques of existing systems), the present invention identifies all variations and the relationships between artifacts, minimizing time and effort during design and implementation phases. More particularly, early discovery of commonalities and variations across related artifacts helps in minimizing the implementation of inflexible and redundant services and service components, while enabling the handling of complexities by primarily focusing on the commonalities and variations.
A power source 205 is configured to provide operative power to the device 200; examples include battery units 205 and power inputs configured to receive alternating or direct current electrical power, and other appropriate power units 205 will be apparent to one skilled in the art. A communication port or network link/node means (“com port”) 207 is also provided and configured to enable data and other communications as may be appropriate, for example as discussed above.
Referring now to
As shown, the computer system 304 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 312, a memory 316, a bus 320, and input/output (I/O) interfaces 324. Further, the computer system 304 is shown in communication with external I/O devices/resources 328 and storage media and systems 332 (which may include, for example, the Common VOA repository 80). In general, the processing unit 312 executes computer program code, such as the code to implement various components of the process and systems, and devices as illustrated in
While executing computer program code, the processing unit 312 can read and/or write data to/from the memory 316, the storage system 332, and/or the I/O interfaces 324. The bus 320 provides a communication link between each of the components in computer system 304. The external devices 328 can comprise any devices (e.g., keyboards, pointing devices, displays, etc.) that enable a user to interact with computer system 304 and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system 304 to communicate with one or more other computing devices.
The computer infrastructure 308 is only illustrative of various types of computer infrastructures for implementing the invention. For example, in one embodiment, computer infrastructure 308 comprises two or more computing devices (e.g., a server cluster) that communicate over a network to perform the various process steps of the invention.
Moreover, computer system 304 is only representative of various possible computer systems that can include numerous combinations of hardware.
To this extent, in other embodiments, the computer system 304 can comprise any specific purpose-computing article of manufacture comprising hardware and/or computer program code for performing specific functions, any computing article of manufacture that comprises a combination of specific purpose and general-purpose hardware/software, or the like. In each case, the program code and hardware can be created using standard programming and engineering techniques, respectively. Moreover, the processing unit 312 may comprise a single processing unit, or be distributed across one or more processing units in one or more locations, e.g., on a client and server. Similarly, the memory 316 and/or the storage system 332 can comprise any combination of various types of data storage and/or transmission media that reside at one or more physical locations.
Further, I/O interfaces 324 can comprise any system for exchanging information with one or more of the external device 328. Still further, it is understood that one or more additional components (e.g., system software, math co-processing unit, etc.) not shown in
The storage system 332 can be any type of system (e.g., a database) capable of providing storage for information under the present invention. To this extent, the storage system 332 could include one or more storage devices, such as a magnetic disk drive or an optical disk drive. In another embodiment, the storage system 332 includes data distributed across, for example, a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) or a storage area network (SAN) (not shown). In addition, although not shown, additional components, such as cache memory, communication systems, system software, etc., may be incorporated into computer system 304.
While shown and described herein as a method and a system, it is understood that the invention further provides various alternative embodiments. For example, in one embodiment, the invention provides a computer-readable/useable medium that includes computer program code to enable a computer infrastructure to implement methods, systems and devices according to the present application, for example as illustrated in
It is understood that the terms computer-readable medium or computer useable medium comprise one or more of any type of physical embodiment of the program code. In particular, the computer-readable/useable medium can comprise program code embodied on one or more portable storage articles of manufacture (e.g., a compact disc, a magnetic disk, a tape, etc.), on one or more data storage portions of a computing device, such as the memory 316 and/or the storage system 332 (e.g., a fixed disk, a read-only memory, a random access memory, a cache memory, etc.), and/or as a data signal (e.g., a propagated signal) traveling over a network (e.g., during a wired/wireless electronic distribution of the program code).
Still yet, computer infrastructure 308 is intended to demonstrate that some or all of the components of implementation according to the present application could be deployed, managed, serviced, etc. by a service provider who offers to implement, deploy, and/or perform the functions of the present invention for others, for example by licensing methods and browser or application server technology to an internet service provider (ISP) or a cellular telephone provider. In one embodiment the invention may comprise a business method that performs the process steps of the invention on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis. Thus, a service provider can create, maintain, support, etc., a computer infrastructure, such as the computer infrastructure 308 that performs the process steps of the present application for one or more customers, and in return the service provider can receive payment from the customer(s) under a subscription and/or fee agreement and/or the service provider can receive payment from the sale of advertising content to one or more third parties.
In still another embodiment, the invention provides a computer-implemented method for enabling the processes, methods and devices according to the present application. In this case, a computer infrastructure, such as computer infrastructure 308, can be provided and one or more systems for performing the process steps of the invention can be obtained (e.g., created, purchased, used, modified, etc.) and deployed to the computer infrastructure. To this extent, the deployment of a system can comprise one or more of: (1) installing program code on a computing device, such as computer system 304, from a computer-readable medium; (2) adding one or more computing devices to the computer infrastructure; and (3) incorporating and/or modifying one or more existing systems of the computer infrastructure to enable the computer infrastructure to perform the process steps of the invention.
As used herein, it is understood that the terms “program code” and “computer program code” are synonymous and mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a computing device having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form. To this extent, program code can be embodied as one or more of: an application/software program, component software/a library of functions, an operating system, a basic I/O system/driver for a particular computing and/or I/O device, and the like.
Certain examples and elements described in the present specification, including in the claims and as illustrated in the Figures, may be distinguished or otherwise identified from others by unique adjectives (e.g. a “primary,” “first” or “initial,” etc., element distinguished from a “second,” “third” or “another,” etc., of a plurality of elements). Such identifying adjectives are generally used to reduce confusion or uncertainty, and are not to be construed to limit the claims to any specific illustrated element or embodiment, or to imply any precedence, ordering or ranking of any claim elements, limitations or process steps.
The foregoing description of various aspects of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
