IT Change Control Platform Using ML Classification

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

IT control environments face significant financial risks due to failures in change management, such as typos causing massive outages or untested software deployments, highlighting the need for robust assurance models to prevent errors before production deployment.

Innovation Solution

A control platform utilizing a natural language engine with a risk-based corpora, a rules engine, and a topic model to generate expected labels for change records, employing supervised and unsupervised learning to classify changes as 'pass', 'fail', or 'suspense' based on similarity and confidence thresholds, ensuring proactive guidance and minimizing future control issues.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If manual review of all change records is performed, then accuracy of control verification is improved, but productivity and time consumption are worsened

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of control verificationVSAvoidprocessing speed of change records
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system employs machine learning models that automatically analyze and classify change records without human intervention. The topic model and supervised learning algorithms enable the system to self-evaluate change records, determining pass/fail/suspense classifications autonomously, thus achieving both high accuracy and high productivity simultaneously

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual mechanical review processes with automated computational systems. Machine learning models, natural language processing, and automated classification algorithms substitute human analysts, enabling rapid processing of large volumes of change records while maintaining consistent accuracy through probabilistic classification

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Productivity

If automated classification is used for all change records, then productivity is improved, but measurement precision and reliability are worsened

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprocessing speed of change recordsVSAvoidaccuracy of classification
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where classification results are continuously evaluated and used to retrain and improve the machine learning models. The suspense category serves as a feedback loop, allowing manual review of uncertain cases to generate training data that enhances future automated classification accuracy, thus improving both productivity and precision over time

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs probabilistic classification with configurable confidence thresholds. By adjusting decision parameters and confidence levels, the system can dynamically balance between automated processing speed and classification accuracy, adapting to different operational requirements while maintaining both productivity and measurement precision

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Reliability

If comprehensive analysis of change records is performed, then reliability of control assurance is improved, but loss of time and complexity are worsened

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvereliability of control assuranceVSAvoidtime for analysis
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary automated filtering and pre-classification of change records before detailed analysis. By quickly identifying obvious pass/fail cases and routing only uncertain cases to more thorough analysis, the system achieves comprehensive reliability assessment without excessive time investment, processing records in stages of increasing depth

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

4Measurement precision

If manual verification of change records is performed, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and operational complexity are worsened

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of verificationVSAvoidcomplexity of verification process
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system employs self-service automated classification that handles the majority of verification tasks without human intervention. Machine learning models automatically perform the complex analysis work, reducing both operational complexity and the need for manual verification while maintaining high measurement precision through algorithmic consistency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP4141760A1Service management control platform
Publication Date: 2023.03.01 ROYAL BANK OF CANADA
  • EP4141760A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4141760A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4141760A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A control platform 100 involves a natural language engine 126 with a risk-based corpora 306, a rules engine 128 with feature vectors 304 from labelled change records 302, and topic model 130 to generate an expected label for an additional change record based on training data generated from the labelled change records 302 and the risk-based corpora 306.