System and methods for integrating authoring with complexity analysis for computing system operation procedures

1. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a workflow representation of the generated procedure, the workflow representation being an annotated document documenting the overall workflow of the generated procedure and comprising one or more workflow elements of the generated procedure and one or more documentation elements of the generated procedure; and

analyzing the workflow representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure;

wherein the procedure generating step further comprises searching a documentation element repository to identify appropriate documentation and linking the documentation to the procedure or one or more elements of the procedure.

2. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a workflow representation of the generated procedure, the workflow representation being an annotated document documenting the overall workflow of the generated procedure and comprising one or more workflow elements of the generated procedure and one or more documentation elements of the generated procedure; and

analyzing the workflow representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure;

wherein the procedure generating step further comprises exporting an internal procedure representation for use by the extracting step.

3. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a workflow representation of the generated procedure, the workflow representation being an annotated document documenting the overall workflow of the generated procedure and comprising one or more workflow elements of the generated procedure and one or more documentation elements of the generated procedure; and

analyzing the workflow representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure;

wherein the extracting step further comprises obtaining an internal procedure representation generated by the procedure generation step, and extracting one or more workflow elements from the internal procedure representation.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting a workflow structure from the internal procedure representation.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the extracting step further comprises extracting one or more documentation elements from the internal procedure representation.

6. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a structured representation of the generated procedure; and

analyzing the structured representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure;

wherein the extracting step further comprises:

obtaining an internal procedure representation generated by the procedure generation step;

extracting one or more workflow elements from the internal procedure representation;

extracting a workflow structure from the internal procedure representation;

extracting one or more documentation elements from the internal procedure representation; and

encoding extracted information into a structured representation of an overall workflow such that a documentation-annotated workflow representation is produced.

7. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a structured representation of the generated procedure;

analyzing the structured representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure; and

generating documentation relating to the generated procedure from the structured representation of the generated procedure;

wherein the documentation generating step further comprises relating to the generated procedure from the structured representation of the generated procedure, and assembling one or more linked or embedded documentation elements into a unified documentation describing the generated procedure.

8. A computer-implemented method for authoring a procedure associated with a computing system operation based on a complexity analysis associated with the operation and the computing system implementing the operation, comprising executing the following steps via a computer:

generating a procedure associated with the computing system operation, wherein the generated procedure represents a new procedure or an edited existing procedure;

extracting from the generated procedure a structured representation of the generated procedure;

analyzing the structured representation of the generated procedure to produce complexity analysis results, wherein at least a portion of the complexity analysis results are fed back to a procedure author for use in selectively altering the generated procedure; and

generating documentation relating to the generated procedure from the structured representation of the generated procedure;

wherein the documentation generating step further comprises relating to the generated procedure from the structured representation of the generated procedure, and annotating the documentation with complexity-based meta-information.