Data processing: software development – installation – and managem – Software program development tool – Translation of code
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-07
2001-08-14
Powell, Mark (Department: 2122)
Data processing: software development, installation, and managem
Software program development tool
Translation of code
C717S152000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275977
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a support tool for configuring a system which supports business processes, and specifically to an application cooperation tool for supporting to realize configuration/reconfiguration of a system which supports business processes, through cooperation/integration of newly developed independent business applications in the form suitable for business processes.
More specifically, the invention relates to an application cooperation tool capable of quickly and easily realizing selection of business applications to be used and cooperation/integration of the business applications, for the following cases (1) to (4).
(1) Configuration of a system which supports to realize a virtual call center, an electronic commerce, a virtual project team, a virtual enterprise, and the like, by using networks such as the Internet, an intranet, and a public switching telecommunication network.
(2) Reconfiguration of a support system for business processes changed because of a business environment change.
(3) Configuration of an information system integrating already present information processing system environments such as public switching telecommunication networks and mainframes, with latest information system environments such as computer telephony integration (CTI).
(4) Conversion of a conventional section-independent information system into a section-interlinking information system.
Various system development/configuration support tools are now used in order to support configuration/reconfiguration of a business process support system.
For example, technology for configuration/reconfiguration of a business process support system has been proposed in which a function of realizing each business process is changed into a software component by using object oriented technology, and these software components are combined, cooperated/integrated in accordance with business processes to be configured (refer to Nikkei Computer, April, 1997, pp. 126 to 136 and Nikkei Byte, August 1996, pp. 204 to 221).
Another technology for configuration/reconfiguration of a business process support system has also been proposed in which, for example, a model representing a business process flow called a workflow is defined, and business applications realizing respective process logics are cooperated/integrated in accordance with the definitions (refer to Workgroup Computing Report, Vol. 19, No. 7, 1996, pp. 3 to 19).
The above-described conventional technologies provide only the platform for cooperating a plurality of software components (business applications) constituting a business process support system. Namely, a software component suitable for each process logic constituting a business process to be incorporated is selected from a group of software components formed based upon various information technologies and tools, and each selected software component is related to a corresponding process logic to thereby configure a business process support system. These works are dependent upon abilities of developers.
With the above-described technologies, therefore, knowledge and experiences of configuration/reconfiguration realizing means such as various types of new and old information technologies/application tools are required when a business process support system is to be configured/reconfigured. It is therefore difficult to effectively select a software component suitable for a business process and make the software component be related to a corresponding process logic. A load on system implementation cannot therefore be supported sufficiently.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made under the above-described circumstances. It is an object of the invention to provide an application cooperation method and apparatus capable of configuration/reconfiguration of a business process support system by automatically selecting necessary business applications from a defined logical process model and cooperating/integrating these business applications, without making developers unnecessary for configuration/reconfiguration realizing means such as various types of new and old information technologies/application tools.
In order to achieve the above object, the invention provides an application cooperation method which comprises the following steps:
a logical process model definition step of providing logical application object (hereinafter called a logical AP object) information including node class object information and defining interactively with a user a logical process model having logical AP objects as business components, the logical AP object information defining the logical AP object for abstractly defining contents of information processing as an object class for each common process item and attribute and defining an inheritance relationship between object classes as a tree structure;
an implementation process model generation step of selecting a physical application object (hereinafter called a physical AP object) corresponding to each logical AP object constituting the logical process model defined by the logical process model definition step, by referring to logical-physical object correspondence information representative of a correspondence relationship between the logical AP object and the physical AP object for defining a business application (hereinafter called a business AP) which is physical execution means for performing information processing in the unit of an object formed through distributed object technologies, and generating an implementation process model of the logical process model through cooperation of selected physical AP objects;
a script generation step of generating execution control scripts in a definition language for the implementation process model generated by the implementation process model generation step; and
a process model supply step of supplying a process model represented by the execution control scripts generated by the script generation step to a process broker object provided as a common business object on a distributed object platform ensuring a mutual cooperation between physical AP objects.
According to the present invention, by only defining the logical process model, it becomes possible to automatically generate the implementation process model constituted of business Ap's which are physical execution means for information processing and scripts for executing business AP's in accordance with the implementation process model.
Accordingly, a user or developer can configure/reconfigure a business process support system without thinking of realizing means such as various types of information technologies/application tools.
In this invention, if the physical AP object corresponding to the logical AP object constituting the logical process model defined by the logical process model definition step cannot be selected, the implementation process model generation step may select as an alternative physical AP object a physical AP object corresponding to a logical AP object defined at a superior object class relative to the subject physical AP object in the inheritance relationship in the node class object information or corresponding to a logical AP object defined at a subordinate object class relative to the superior object class.
Accordingly, even if the logical-physical object corresponding information does not contain a physical AP object corresponding to the logical AP object used by the logical process model defined by a user, it is possible to generate the implementation process model of the logical process model.
Also in this invention, the logical AP object information may include, in addition to the node class object information, a plurality of process class object components constituted of a plurality of logical AP objects, as a template component of a logical process.
Also in this invention, the logical AP object information may include, in addition to the node class object information, a plurality of process instance object components formed in the past as a configurat
Hayashi Masato
Kinoshita Shigeaki
Nagai Yasuhiko
Nakayama Yoshiyuki
Yamane Toshio
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Hitachi , Ltd.
Holmes Michael B.
Powell Mark
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