Claims
- 1. A method of investigating a business process, comprising:
accessing process execution data generated by one or more components of a business process platform during execution of one or more instantiations of one or more business processes each involving a set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources; and visualizing the process execution data with a focus on a user-selected process entity and summarized in terms of a user-selected statistic presented across a user-selected perspective corresponding to an attribute dimension of the user-selected process entity.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein visualizing the process execution data comprises generating a database query based upon the user-selected process entity, the user-selected statistic, and the user-selected perspective.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein visualizing the process execution data comprises mapping process execution data in accordance with the user-selected process entity, the user-selected statistic, and the user-selected perspective.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selected process entity is selected from one of: an aggregation of multiple businesses processes; a single business process; a business process service; and a business process resource.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selected perspective is selected from one of the following process entity attribute dimensions: time; a business process service; a business process resource; a business process initiator; a business process node.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selected perspective is user-definable.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein a perspective definition comprises a taxonomy comprising a set of one or more category labels each associated with a respective condition on the process execution data.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein a condition corresponds to one of: number of activations of a node; assignment of a node to an identified resource; duration of a node; duration of an identified business process; a value of data items at process instantiation time, completion time, or after execution of a node.
- 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selected statistic is selected from one of: a count; running time; and a standard deviation of running time.
- 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selected statistic is user-definable.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein a statistic definition comprises a concept label and an identified business process attribute.
- 12. The method of claim 1, wherein visualizing the process execution data comprises filtering process execution data based upon a set of user-selected restrictions.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the restrictions are selected from one or more of: a business process service; a business process initiator; a business process resource; a business process node; and a time period.
- 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring an execution of a business process instance.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein monitoring comprises detecting occurrence of an alert condition.
- 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the alert condition is user-definable.
- 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating a notification in response to a detected alert condition occurrence.
- 18. A computer program for investigating a business process, the computer program residing on a computer-readable medium and comprising computer-readable instructions for causing a computer to:
access process execution data generated by one or more components of a business process platform during execution of one or more instantiations of one or more business processes each involving a set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources; and visualize the process execution data with a focus on a user-selected process entity and summarized in terms of a user-selected statistic presented across a user-selected perspective corresponding to an attribute dimension of the user-selected process entity.
- 19. A system for investigating a business process, comprising a graphical user interface configured to:
prompt a user to select a process entity, a statistic, and a perspective corresponding to an attribute dimension of the user-selected process entity; based upon the user-selected process entity, statistic and perspective, query process execution data generated by one or more components of a business process platform during execution of one or more instantiations of one or more business processes each involving a set of one or more activities each defined by a respective service and performed by a respective set of one or more resources; and visualize the queried process execution data with a focus on the user-selected process entity and summarized in terms of the user-selected statistic presented across the user-selected perspective.
- 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to select a process entity from: an aggregation of multiple businesses processes; a single business process; a business process service; and a business process resource.
- 21. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to select a perspective from one of the following process entity attribute dimensions: time; a business process service; a business process resource; a business process initiator; a business process node.
- 22. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to define a perspective.
- 23. The system of claim 22, wherein a perspective definition comprises a taxonomy comprising a set of one or more category labels each associated with a respective condition on the process execution data.
- 24. The system of claim 23, wherein a condition corresponds to one of: number of activations of a node; assignment of a node to an identified resource; duration of a node; duration of an identified business process; a value of data items at process instantiation time, completion time, or after execution of a node.
- 25. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to select a statistic from: a count; running time; and a standard deviation of running time.
- 26. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to define a statistic.
- 27. The system of claim 26, wherein a statistic definition comprises a concept label and an identified business process attribute.
- 28. The system of claim 19, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to select a set of restrictions for filtering process execution data to be visualized.
- 29. The system of claim 28, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to prompt a user to select one or more restrictions from: a business process service; a business process initiator; a business process resource; a business process node; and a time period.
- 30. The system of claim 19, further comprising a monitoring engine operable to monitor execution of a business process instance.
- 31. The system of claim 30, wherein the monitoring engine is operable to detect occurrence of an alert condition.
- 32. The system of claim 31, wherein the alert condition is user-definable.
- 33. The system of claim 31, wherein the monitoring engine is operable to generate a notification to be sent to a user in response to a detected alert condition occurrence.
- 34. The system of claim 31, wherein the monitoring engine is operable to notify an event to one or more workflow management systems in response to a detected alert condition occurrence.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application relates to the following co-pending applications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/860,230, filed May 17, 2001, by Fabio Casati et al. and entitled “Method of Identifying and Analyzing Business Processes from Workflow Audit Files;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, by Fabio Casati et al. and entitled “Improving Business Processes” [Attorney Docket No. 10019713-1]; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, by Fabio Casati et al. and entitled “Analyzing Decision Points In Business Processes” [Attorney Docket No. 10019715-1].