Semantic Graph Impact Analysis for Business Applications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Measuring the impact of changes to a business application system is difficult due to the 'black box' nature of packaged applications, making it challenging to predict adverse effects on availability, functionality, and performance.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses a directed graph to represent the business application system, where nodes represent artifacts and links indicate dependencies, allowing for non-intrusive impact analysis by determining the effect of changes on the system without applying them live, providing artifact assessment data for mitigation or improvement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If packaged business applications operate as black boxes to maintain security and simplicity, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision of impact analysis deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary impact analysis system that sits between the user and the black box application. This system uses directed graphs and semantic data to model application artifacts and their dependencies, allowing impact assessment without penetrating the black box boundary. The intermediary captures metadata and dependency information to predict change impacts while the application remains operationally simple and secure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy or model of the application system through directed graphs that represent artifacts as nodes and dependencies as links. This graphical model replicates the essential structure and relationships of the actual application without requiring access to its internal implementation. Changes can be analyzed on this copy to predict impacts on the real system.
2Productivity
If changes are introduced directly into the system to achieve quick implementation, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to undetected adverse effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary impact analysis before changes are actually implemented. By using directed graphs to trace dependencies from the artifact being changed, the system predicts potential adverse effects on availability, functionality, and performance. This preliminary assessment allows stakeholders to evaluate risks and make informed decisions before deployment, preventing reliability issues while maintaining implementation speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by identifying and flagging potential adverse effects before they occur. The impact analysis detects broken functionality, availability issues, and performance degradation risks in advance, allowing preventive measures to be taken. This counteracts potential harmful effects before they can manifest in the live system.
3Reliability
If comprehensive impact analysis is performed to improve reliability, then device complexity increases, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex analysis task into manageable components: artifacts are divided into discrete nodes in the directed graph, and dependencies are broken down into individual links with semantic data. This segmentation allows the system to perform comprehensive analysis by processing small, manageable units rather than analyzing the entire system monolithically, making the complexity transparent and manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
Impact analysis for business applications can include receiving an event for a business application system, wherein the event specifies a change to an artifact of the business application system, and determining a node of a directed graph to which the event applies as a source node. The directed graph represents the business application system. The directed graph is formed by a plurality of nodes joined by links, wherein each node represents an artifact of the business application system and each link specifies semantic data indicating a dependency between the nodes joined by the link. Impact analysis further includes determining, using a processor, artifact assessment data for a first node connected to the source node through a first link, wherein the artifact assessment data includes a type of an effect of the event upon the first node and a context for the effect.