Patent Application
20160011902
The present application relates generally to computers, and computer applications, and more particularly to information technology (IT) system service and delivery and IT incident management.
Enterprises run on many applications that interact with each other and are inter-dependent. As a result, tasks of application support and maintenance are usually inter-related. An application maintenance task often modifies one or more application artifacts (e.g. codes and data structure). At design/plan time generally, only artifacts that are directly targeted by a task are considered even though execution of a task may change more artifacts because of direct/indirect impact.
Executing maintenance tasks without recognizing artifact associations and consequently task associations causes delayed and low quality delivery. In current practice, task association analysis is conducted manually and ad-hoc, often when a problem arises. Inappropriate task assignment to resources may cause severe interlock among task owners; in addition, there is lack of definitive guidance for collaboration among task owners. Because of complicated task associations, task assignment becomes difficult without a systematical approach to considering the hard or soft constraints imposed by task-resource matching, task associations, and resource-resource relationships.
A method of analyzing task associations, in one aspect, may comprise computing artifact associations for a plurality of artifacts based on historical task submission logs, an artifact association representing a degree to which two artifacts are processed by a same task. The method may also comprise receiving planned tasks and targeted artifacts, the targeted artifacts to be modified by one or more of the planned tasks. The method may further comprise determining from the computed artifact associations, shared artifacts that have artifact association with the targeted artifacts. The method may also comprise identifying task association between the planned tasks based on the shared artifacts, wherein a plurality of task associations can be determined for a plurality of tasks. The method may also comprise analyzing the task associations to determine one or more of task assignment and task schedule for the planned tasks.
A system for analyzing task associations, in one aspect, may comprise a hardware processor and a storage device. The hardware processor may be operable to compute artifact associations for a plurality of artifacts based on historical task submission logs, an artifact association representing a degree to which two artifacts are processed by a same task and further operable to store the artifact association on the storage device. The hardware processor may be further operable to receive planned tasks and targeted artifacts, the targeted artifacts to be modified by one or more of the planned tasks. The hardware processor may be further operable to determine from the computed artifact associations, shared artifacts that have artifact association with the targeted artifacts. The hardware processor may be further operable to identify task association between the planned tasks based on the shared artifacts, wherein a plurality of task associations can be determined for a plurality of tasks. The hardware processor may be further operable to analyze the task associations to determine one or more of task assignment and task schedule for the planned tasks.
A computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform one or more methods described herein also may be provided.
Further features as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a systematic approach is presented that analyze associations among application artifacts and tasks, and utilize identified associations to facilitate task assignment and resource collaboration. Artifacts or application artifacts refer to application code, objects and/or data structure used to implement an application. This approach may comprise calculating artifact associations by analyzing historical task submission logs. Artifact association may be defined as the frequency of two artifacts modified by the same task. The approach may also comprise analyzing an association between two planned tasks based on identified artifact associations. Task association may be defined as the estimated frequency of two (planned) tasks modifying the same artifacts. A task association graph may be generated based on the association between tasks. The approach may also comprise analyzing a task association graph, e.g., and modularizing tasks for parallel execution, finding critical tasks considered to be critical based on one or more criteria that demand experienced resources, and generating collaboration guidance for owners of closely associated task based on the analyzing. The approach may also comprise optimizing task assignment/scheduling by maximizing task-task, person-task, and person-person synergies, e.g., in addition to traditional objectives.
For instance, an application suite may have many components that are intertwined and has many dependencies horizontally across other applications of an enterprise, for example, fourth, fifth, sixth order, or even higher order dependencies. In such inter-dependent systems, unknown relationships between components of one application suite (e.g., a policy claim application suite) and components in another application suite (e.g., a life annuity application suite) may tend to get missed and/or be discovered in a later stage of an application lifecycle, e.g., during system test. These newly-discovered dependencies cause late design changes and rework at a later stage.
A methodology of the present disclosure in one embodiment analyzes for task associations and identifies dependencies among planned tasks. The methodology of the present disclosure in one embodiment may enhance and structure communication among task owners on inter-relationship among tasks (e.g., application maintenance tasks) and on potential issues caused by inter-relationship. In one aspect, the methodology may calculate an application artifact association degree by analyzing historical task submission logs, create task association graphs on application dependencies and application artifact association, create communities of task owners by analyzing the task association graphs, and monitor collaboration performance of task owners.
The methodology of the present disclosure may be applicable in global IT service delivery model, IT incident management, and others. A global service deliver model, e.g., is used by companies engaged in IT consulting and services delivery business to execute a technology project. IT incident management tries to restore a normal service operation as quickly as possible and to minimize the impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. IT incident management resolves incidents, an event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to or a reduction in, the quality of that service. IT incident management tries to restore normal operations as quickly as possible with the least possible impact on either the business or the user, at a cost-effective price.
Referring back to
At 104, planned tasks with targeted artifacts may be retrieved or received. For example, two or more planned tasks may be received. Planned tasks may be those that are planned to be executed, e.g., for application maintenance or support. A targeted artifact is one that a planned task directly modifies, e.g., in the course of the task execution.
At 106, artifacts that are either directly or transitively (indirectly) associated with the targeted artifacts are identified, e.g., from the database of artifact associations 118. Artifacts A and B are referred to s being directly associated, if artifact A modifies Artifact B, or vice verse. Artifacts A and C are transitively associated if artifact A is associated with another artifact that in turn is associated with artifact C; e.g., if artifact A is associated with artifact B, and artifact B is associated with artifact C, then transitively, A is associated with C. Assume A is a target artifact, then B and C are also included in the identification. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, artifacts with artifact association values that meet a criterion, e.g., meet a threshold value may be identified as having artifact association with the targeted artifacts.
At 108, one or more task associations for the planned tasks are computed or identified based on one or more artifacts identified to be associated with the target artifacts (identified at 106). Those artifacts are also referred to as shared artifacts. One or more identified task associations are stored in a storage device, e.g., in a database of task associations 126. For example, the database of task associations 126 may store a plurality of tasks obtained from a work break down structure 120 that specifies or lists tasks. The task associations identified at 108 may be stored by indicating an association or a link between the tasks stored in the task associations database 126.
In one aspect, a task association graph representing a graph of tasks and their inter-dependence may be generated based on the task associations identified at 108 and, e.g., stored at 126. The graph may comprise a plurality of tasks as nodes and their inter-dependence as connections between the nodes. The graph may be represented as a data structure of nodes and links between the nodes.
At 110, task associations may be analyzed. For example, the task association graph may be analyzed. Analysis may comprise determining task-task synergies, person-task synergies, and person-person synergies. Based on the analysis, the tasks may be modularized. Modularized tasks may be presented candidates for parallel execution. Also, based on the analysis, critical tasks (considered critical based on a defined threshold or one or more criteria) may be identified. The identified critical tasks may be suggested to be performed by a resource that can better handle such critical tasks, e.g., resource that has more experience. Further, based on the analysis, one or more task assignments and scheduling may be optimized at 130, e.g., by considering task-task, person-task, and person-person synergies, and available resources. The information associated with the resources may be stored in a storage device, e.g., as a database storing information about resources, e.g., engineer work on tasks 128.
At 112, collaboration guidance for task owners may be generated based on resource-artifact association 124, stored in a storage device and the determined assignment and/or scheduling determined at 130. Resource-artifact association database 124 may store the associations between resources and artifacts, e.g., who is the owner of an artifact, how familiar a resource is with an artifact. Such an association indicates whether a resource has enough knowledge to work on an artifact. The associations can be obtained from historical task submission logs which record tasks submitted by resources and artifacts modified by the resources through tasks.
AA(ai,ak)=|T_SETi∩T—SETj|/|T_SETi∪T_SETj|
AAEε[0,1]
For example, given artifact a1 that appears in the submission of three historical tasks, HT1, HT2, HT3, and artifact a2 that appears in the submission of two historical tasks, HT2, HT4, artifact association (AA) may be computed as follows:
At 404, the example algorithm may identify artifacts that are strongly (transitively) associated with Ax1 (e.g., association>threshold). Threshold value may be predefined, or may be configurable. Call this set Ax2. Let Ax=Ax1 U Ax2. “U” represents union operation.
At 406, for each pair of task (Tx, Ty), the example algorithm may compute task association between them as the Jaccard Index as follows:
TA(Tx,Ty)=|Ax∩Ay|/|AxU Ay|
TAε[0,1]
Consider as an example that the artifact association threshold is set to 0.6. Then,
Hence, in the above example, task association between tasks Tx and Ty is computed as 0.67.
Using the task association values, e.g., computed as described above, a task association graph (TAG) may be generated.
Using such task association graph or a representation of such task associations, tasks may modularized or modularity of tasks may be detected. TAG modularization method may utilize Clauset-Newman-Moore network community detection algorithm in one embodiment of the present disclosure. Modularity measures the strength of division of a network into modules graph with high modularity having dense connections between the nodes within modules but sparse connections between nodes in different modules. If a TAG has high modularity, tasks can be grouped in modules. Whether modularity is high or low may be measured based on a predefined threshold number of connections between nodes.
It may be determined that the tasks in the same module are better to be assigned to the same resource, the tasks owned by separate owners are better to be loosely associated.
Also using such task association graph or a representation of such task associations, “critical tasks” may be identified. A task with high degree centrality (i.e., the total number of edges) is identified as a critical task, which is associated with many other tasks. As an example, degree centrality can be normalized as: total number of edges related to this task/total number of edges in the TAG. It may be determined that critical tasks should be assigned to more experienced resource.
Also, a task may be better to be assigned to resource familiar with the artifacts related to the task (e.g., who worked on these artifacts, which can be also analyzed based on the historical task submission logs). TAG analysis may provide such information.
In another aspect, based on analyzing the task associations, e.g., TAG analysis, task assignments and/or scheduling may be optimized. Optimizing assignments and/or scheduling may include minimizing time to complete work, minimizing cost, and balancing utilization, subject to constraints such as role/skill required to do the work and cost of resources. In one embodiment of a methodology of the present disclosure, optimization may be performed with synergy-based objective, e.g., to maximize the synergy between tasks (task to task (task-task) synergy), the synergy between person and task (person to task (person-task) synergy) and the synergy between persons (person to person (person-person) synergy). Highly associated tasks (e.g., determined by task-task synergy) may be better to be assigned to the task owner for performing the tasks sequentially. For instance, highly associated tasks may be better to be assigned to a single task owner so that the task owner can determine how to execute them completely by the single task owner (without coordination with others). In case these tasks cannot be executed by a single resource, they may be better to be assigned to resources that have good person-person synergy (e.g., they can work together well, e.g., collaborated in the past, belong to the same group, etc.). In this way, the assigned task owners collaborate on task execution. The synergy between them can make the collaboration easy. The execution sequence of highly associated tasks may be up to assigned task owners to determine. The more critical a task is, more expertise may be needed for the assigned task owner; such resource may be identified based on person-task synergy, e.g., a person who is more aligned to perform the task. Highly associated tasks imply strong collaboration. These tasks may be better to be assigned to people with high person-person synergy (e.g., same workgroup, close collaboration experience in the past, worked on the same application artifact). Person-person synergy may be determined based on historical data and other data such as social media data. Determination as to whether a value is high may be based on a threshold or criterion (e.g., highly associated tasks, high person-person synergy).
PPS(Tx,Ty)=Affinity(Px,Py)*TA(Tx,Ty),
where Assign(Px, Tx)=1 and Assign(Py, Ty)=1.
In the above formula, Affinity(Px, Py) represents relationship between persons or resource Px, Py. Such affinity may be determined based on historical data that show, e.g., whether Px, Py collaboratively worked together and how frequently. TA(Tx, Ty) represents task association between Tx, Ty.
At 904, for each pair of tasks (Tx, Ty) that belongs to different task modules, the example algorithm may formulate a Person-Person synergy (PPS) between them, e.g., as:
PPS(Tx,Ty)=0
The above algorithm generally allows for tasks strong associations (strong or high TA) to be assigned to persons with strong associations (strong or high PPS).
PTS(Px,Ty)=LEx*Cy/N*Assign(Px,Ty)
At 1104, for each pair of person task (Px, Ty), if Ty is NOT a critical task, then the example algorithm may form a Person-Task synergy (PTS) between them as:
PTS(Px,Ty)=0
In one aspect, collaboration guidance may be generated based on the task associations (e.g., represented in a task association graph). Collaboration Guidance tells the task owner who else (including other task owners and related artifact subject matter experts (SMEs)) to collaborate with, why the collaboration is needed, and what is the priority of the collaboration.
To determine with whom to collaborate, an example algorithm may, for each resource Rx, identify other resources that he needs to collaborate based on their tasks' association. For example:
Let T(Rx)=[Tx1,Tx2, . . . ,Txm]
R(T(Rx))=U R(Txi),iε[1, . . . ,m]
where m indicates that there are m tasks assigned to R. In one aspect, one task is assigned to one resource; one resource may own multiple tasks.
For each pair of resource that need to collaborate, a methodology of the present disclosure in one embodiment may identify the related task pairs that they should collaborate on based on task associations (e.g., TAG). For every task pair, the methodology of the present disclosure may illustrate the potential artifacts association, e.g., shown at 1304. In this way the collaboration guidance may provide reasons as to why the collaboration may be needed.
To determine the priority of the collaboration, a methodology in one embodiment may, for each collaboration thread, decide the priority based on task association weight and thresholds. For example:
If TA(Tx, Ty) is larger than 0.7, the priority is H;
If TA(Tx, Ty) is between 0.3 and 0.7, the priority is M;
If TA(Tx, Ty) is less than 0.3, the priority is L.
An example priority is shown at 1306, in the collaboration perspective. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a collaboration perspective and task association graph may be visualized, and e.g., presented to a user via a user interface.
Task association analyzer 1406 in one embodiment identifies association between tasks. For example, the task association analyzer 1406 may receive as input planned tasks, e.g., two planned tasks. Planned tasks refer to tasks for execution. Based on the artifact associations computed by the artifact association analyzer 1404, e.g., the task association analyzer 1406 identifies association between the received planned tasks. An example algorithm for computing task association is described with reference to
Task assignment insight generator 1408 in one embodiment generates insights for task assignment based on task association, e.g., identified by the tasks association analyzer 1406. For example, as described above, task-task synergy, person-task synergy, person-person synergy may be computed and used for assigning tasks, e.g., the planned tasks. For instance, highly associated tasks may be assigned to the same resource; more critical a task is considered to be, more expertise may be required for the assigned resource; highly associated tasks imply strong collaboration, and may be better to be assigned to people with high person-person synergy (e.g., same workgroup, close collaboration experience in the past, worked on the sample application artifact).
Collaboration guidance generator 1410 in one embodiment may determine and present information, e.g., in the perspective of a task owner, such as other task owners and/or subject matter experts with whom to collaborate in performing planned tasks, reasons as to why the suggested collaboration is needed, and the priority of the suggested collaboration, e.g., as described above with reference to
The computer system may be described in the general context of computer system executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The computer system may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.
The components of computer system may include, but are not limited to, one or more processors or processing units 12, a system memory 16, and a bus 14 that couples various system components including system memory 16 to processor 12. The processor 12 may include a module 10 that performs the methods described herein. The module 10 may be programmed into the integrated circuits of the processor 12, or loaded from memory 16, storage device 18, or network 24 or combinations thereof.
Bus 14 may represent one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.
Computer system may include a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system, and it may include both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.
System memory 16 can include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) and/or cache memory or others. Computer system may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 18 can be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (e.g., a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, each can be connected to bus 14 by one or more data media interfaces.
Computer system may also communicate with one or more external devices 26 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 28, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 20.
Still yet, computer system can communicate with one or more networks 24 such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 22. As depicted, network adapter 22 communicates with the other components of computer system via bus 14. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system. Examples include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements, if any, in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
