Generating and analyzing business process-aware modules
View Patent ↗Techniques are disclosed for efficiently analyzing measurement data for business processes (for example, in a service provider environment). Business process-aware modules or “cubes” are created from the measurement data, using features of a spatially-enabled database system. A “drill-down” approach is provided for investigating underlying information for a cube (including lower-level linked cubes). Data types other than cubes, such as planes from which a cube is constructed, may also be analyzed. The disclosed techniques may be used to provide autonomic systems, which are self-aware, at a business process level. That is, based on results of analyzing data represented by a cube, autonomic adjustments may be made. In a service provider environment, the analysis and/or the autonomic adjustments may be directed toward enabling the service provider to avoid jeopardizing commitments in service level agreements (and the revenue loss that may result when the commitments are not met).
1. A method of using geospatial operations of a geospatially-enabled database system to analyze a service level management system (“SLMS”), comprising:
collecting, from each of a plurality of probes, a plurality of measurements pertaining to a plurality of service offerings of the SLMS, wherein each of the service offerings comprises a plurality of collaborations among processes of the SLMS, each of the collaborations comprises a plurality of key process indicators representing the processes of the SLMS, each of the key process indicators represents at least one of the processes of the SLMS, and each one of the probes is associated with a different one of the key process indicators;
programmatically constructing a geospatial cube from the collected measurements, wherein:
a first dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a first collection of planes, each of the planes in the first collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular time from among a plurality of times at which the measurements were collected, a service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at the particular time;
a second dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a second collection of planes, each of the planes in the second collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular value of the service offering metric, each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and at which the particular value occurred for that service offering; and
a third dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a third collection of planes, each of the planes in the third collection representing, for each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and a particular one of the service offerings of the SLMS, the service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at that time for the particular one of the service offerings; and
analyzing the processes of the SLMS by using the constructed cube as input to geospatial operations provided by the geospatially-enabled database system.
2. A system for using geospatial operations to analyze a service level management system (“SLMS”), comprising:
a geospatially-enabled database system stored on computer-usable storage;
means for collecting, from each of a plurality of probes a plurality of measurements pertaining to a plurality of service offerings of the SLMS, wherein each of the service offerings comprises a plurality of collaborations among processes of the SLMS, each of the collaborations comprises a plurality of key process indicators representing the processes of the SLMS, each of the key process indicators represents at least one of the processes of the SLMS, and each one of the probes is associated with a different one of the key process indicators;
means for programmatically constructing a geospatial cube from the collected measurements ,wherein:
a first dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a first collection of planes, each of the planes in the first collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular time from among a plurality of times at which the measurements were collected, a service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at the particular time;
a second dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a second collection of planes, each of the planes in the second collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular value of the service offering metric, each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and at which the particular value occurred for that service offering; and
a third dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a third collection of planes, each of the planes in the third collection representing, for each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and a particular one of the service offerings of the SLMS, the service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at that time for the particular one of the service offerings; and
means for analyzing the processes of the SLMS by using the constructed cube as input to geospatial operations, wherein the geospatial operations are provided by the geospatially-enabled database system.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the analyzing further comprises comparing the cube to a reference cube that represents allowable values for the service offering metric.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the service offering metric comprises meeting a service offering objective.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the service offering metric comprises failure to meet a service offering objective, and wherein the analyzing further comprises comparing the cube to a reference cube that represents allowable service offering failures for the service offering metric.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the analyzing further comprises invoking at least one of the geospatial operations to drill down from the cube to a particular one of the planes in the first, second, or third collection to obtain information about the plurality of collaborations.
7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising invoking at least one of the geospatial operations to drill down from the particular one of the planes to obtain information about the plurality of key process indicators.
8. A computer program product for using geospatial operations of a geospatially-enabled database system to analyze a service level management system (“SLMS”), the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media and comprising:
computer-usable program code for collecting, from each of a plurality of probes, a plurality of measurements pertaining to a plurality of service offerings of the SLMS, wherein each of the service offerings comprises a plurality of collaborations among processes of the SLMS, each of the collaborations comprises a plurality of key process indicators representing the processes of the SLMS, each of the key process indicators represents at least one of the processes of the SLMS, and each one of the probes is associated with a different one of the key process indicators;
computer-usable program code for constructing a geospatial cube from the collected measurements, wherein:
a first dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a first collection of planes, each of the planes in the first collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular time from among a plurality of times at which the measurements were collected, a service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at the particular time;
a second dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a second collection of planes, each of the planes in the second collection representing, for each of the service offerings of the SLMS and a particular value of the service offering metric, each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and at which the particular value occurred for that service offering; and
a third dimension of the geospatial cube comprises a third collection of planes, each of the planes in the third collection representing, for each of the plurality of times at which the measurements were collected and a particular one of the service offerings of the SLMS, the service offering metric computed from the measurements collected at that time for the particular one of the service offerings; and
computer-usable program code for analyzing the processes of the SLMS by using the constructed cube as input to geospatial operations provided by the geospatially-enabled database system.
9. The computer program product according to claim 8 , wherein the analyzing further comprises comparing the cube to a reference cube that represents allowable values for the service offering metric.
10. The computer program product according to claim 8 , wherein the service offering metric comprises meeting a service offering objective.
11. The computer program product according to claim 8 , wherein the service offering metric comprises failure to meet a service offering objective, and wherein the analyzing further comprises comparing the cube to a reference cube that represents allowable service offering failures for the service offering metric.
12. The computer program product according to claim 8 , wherein the analyzing further comprises invoking at least one of the geospatial operations to drill down from the cube to a particular one of the planes in the first, second, or third collection to obtain information about the plurality of collaborations.
13. The computer program product according to claim 12 , further comprising invoking at least one of the geospatial operations to drill down from the particular one of the planes to obtain information about the plurality of key process indicators.