IBAMS Representation Layer for Cross-System Traceability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Business artifacts are typically stored across isolated data islands, making it difficult to achieve traceability and impact analysis across multiple disparate systems, and existing integrated business artifact management systems (IBAMS) restrict user freedom by requiring specific software tools and limiting functionality, leading to inefficiencies and resistance to migration.
Innovation Solution
An integrated business artifact management system (IBAMS) that generates representations of business artifacts from various data islands, allowing for their integration and storage in a centralized collection, enabling traceability and impact analysis without requiring reengineering or migration from native tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If business artifacts are stored across isolated data islands using independent tools, then users can use familiar software tools with full functionality, but traceability and impact analysis across artifacts become difficult and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (representation generation component) that sits between the disparate data islands and the IBAMS. This intermediary generates standardized representations of business artifacts from various native formats without requiring migration to IBAMS-native tools, thus preserving user freedom while enabling traceability through a common interface
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies or representations of business artifacts from different data islands in a standardized format. These representations maintain the essential information needed for traceability and impact analysis while allowing the original artifacts to remain in their native environments with their native tools
2Loss of information
If IBAMS requires business artifacts to be created using native software tools, then traceability and impact analysis are enabled, but user freedom is reduced and functionality is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The representation generation component acts as an intermediary that translates artifacts from various native tools into a standardized format that IBAMS can process for traceability, without forcing users to abandon their preferred tools
Solution Approach 2:
The system achieves universality by being able to accept and process business artifacts from multiple different native tools and formats through a common representation interface, making IBAMS versatile without requiring tool migration
3Reliability
If business artifacts are stored in isolated data islands, then users can maintain existing tools and processes, but impact analysis across multiple systems becomes inefficient and requires complete recreation of artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates standardized representations (copies) of business artifacts from isolated data islands, enabling efficient impact analysis through these representations without requiring migration or recreation of the original artifacts in new tools
Solution Approach 2:
The representation layer serves as an intermediary that enables impact analysis across isolated systems by providing a common interface for analyzing relationships between artifacts from different data islands, without disrupting existing reliable tools
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods of managing normally independent or unassociated business artifacts using an integrated business artifact management system (IBAMS) to deliver a cohesive, linked, and traceable network of related and integrated artifacts that supports improved business knowledge and impact analysis. A disclosed IBAMS includes a collection of integrated business artifacts stored in a memory of the IBAMS and a plurality of links, each associated with a respective data island of a plurality of data islands. Each link includes a set of instructions that, when executed by a processor of the IBAMS, cause the processor to: receive business artifacts from the respective data island; generate representations that are abstractions of the business artifacts received from the respective data island; and store and integrate the representations in the collection of integrated business artifacts.