JP6738637B2 - Business flow analysis program, business flow analysis method, and business flow analysis device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a business flow analysis program, method, and apparatus for analyzing a current business from so-called business system log information.

In a replacement project of a business system of a company, the persons in charge consider the new business based on the current business, so it is important to understand the actual situation of the current business. However, as a conventional method of grasping the actual state of the current work, there are methods of referring to the manual and hearing, but the manual is obsolete and unreliable, and the hearing lacks the objectivity because the subjectivity of a specific user is included. There is a problem.

For these problems, there is a process mining technology that generates a work flow from log information output by a business system or the like. However, since the work flows of a huge number of projects have actually been overlapped, it is not possible to grasp how each project flowed.

WO07/132547

On the other hand, there is a technique for displaying the workflows of individual cases by classifying the workflows in which the number of occurrences of the “sequence pattern” is large, and those not in the exceptions, as exceptions (Patent Document 1). However, the workflow of each case generated from the log information may have various characteristics reflecting the implementation status of the workflow. The characteristics include, for example, "rework" in which the approver is sent back to the approver twice to make an approval request due to an input error at the time of approval request, and "interruption" in which work is ended halfway. It cannot be sorted only by the number of appearances. Further, in Patent Document 1, it is premised that (the sequence pattern of) a normal work flow has the largest number of appearances, but that is not practical. For example, when the above-mentioned characteristic “interruption” is the most frequent. Actually not a few.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above, and a business flow for automatically generating a business flow from the typical business application log information as information indicating the operating status of a corporate information system by determining the characteristics of the business flow. An analysis program, a work flow analysis method, and a work flow analysis device are provided.

In order to solve the problems described above, the present invention provides a computer that determines the characteristics of a business flow automatically generated from the log information of the business system in the business performed by using the business system. To be displayed on. The log information has a pair of a work identifier for identifying a work included in the log information, a case identifier for identifying a case included in the log information attached to the work, and a time when the work is performed. Information. Further, in the present invention, in the workflow analysis, from a flow extraction step of generating a work sequence in which the work identifiers having the same case identifier are arranged in time series, and the work sequence group generated in the flow extraction step, When the same work identifier is included twice in the work sequence, it is determined that the work execution state of the work sequence is rework, and the work sequence does not include the work identifier indicating the end work. Is a flow determination step of determining the characteristic related to the work implementation status of the work queue by determining that the work implementation status of the work queue is suspended, and the work queue having different characteristics. And a flow display step of distinguishing and displaying.

Further, in the present invention, the workflow of each case is extracted from the business application log information, the workflow is classified according to the “rule” that defines the characteristics of the workflow, and the characteristics of the classified workflow are taken into consideration. , The work flows are superimposed and displayed, and the work flows include “return” and “ interrupt ”.

According to the present invention, a business flow can be expressed by distinguishing its characteristics from an application log of an information system. Therefore, the person in charge of the replacement case of the business system of the company can grasp the frequency and pattern of the business flow for each characteristic, and can grasp the actual situation of the current business more deeply.

It is a figure which shows the outline|summary of embodiment of this invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration in a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the business flow analysis apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the business flow analysis apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a table showing the data structure of the work implementation information in the embodiment of the present invention. 3 is an example of a process instance in the embodiment of the present invention. It is a table showing the output result of the flow determination unit 413 in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a first flow display method in the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the 2nd flow display method in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the terminal work information in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flow chart which shows a processing procedure of a flow extraction part 412 in a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process procedure of the flow determination part 413 in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a selection screen of the business flow determination method in the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a flow chart which shows a processing procedure of the 1st business flow judging method in a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flow chart which shows a processing procedure of the 2nd business flow judging method in a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flow chart which shows a processing procedure of a business flow display method in a 1st embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the present embodiment will be outlined, and then each embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of the present invention. The computer 110 automatically generates a business flow from the log information output by the business system by distinguishing it according to its characteristics. Computer 110 includes practitioner information storage unit 11 1, the flow extractor 112, flow determining means 113, the flow display unit 114.

Practitioner information storage unit 11 1 stores the practitioner information in the business system 120. The work implementation information is information about who performed what work under what case at what time, and is a set of data having at least a case ID, a work ID, a person in charge ID, and a time. The work implementation information can be extracted from, for example, log information that is always output for operation or maintenance of the business system.

The flow extracting unit 112 extracts a business flow from the business execution information stored in the business execution information storage unit 11. Specifically, when the task implementation information is a set of tuples of a pair of (matter ID, work ID, person in charge ID, time), a work whose time series of work ID values having the same matter ID value is one matter It corresponds to a flow (this will be referred to as a process instance), and the flow extracting unit 112 generates a process instance for all the matter IDs included in the work implementation information.

The flow determination unit 113 determines the characteristics of the process instances for all the process instances generated by the flow extraction unit 112. Since the implementation status of the work appears in the appearance order of the work, the appearance frequency, the appearance time interval, etc., the appearance order, the appearance frequency, and the appearance time interval variation of the work configuring the process instance are determined as characteristics.
The flow display means 114 receives the result of the flow determination means 113, and displays the process instance group separately for each characteristic determined to have it.

Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration in this embodiment.
The business system 210 includes a client PC 211 and a server machine 212, and the client PC 211 and the server machine 212 are connected via a network 213. A person who uses the business system 210 operates the client PC 211 to send a request to the server machine 212, and when the business application running on the server machine 212 receives the request, it executes the process according to the program. At this time, the log information including the work execution information is output in the program.
Further, the business flow analysis device 220 is connected to the business system 210 via the network 230 and acquires the log information accumulated in the server machine 212 via the network 230.

The hardware configurations of the business flow analysis device 220, the client PC 211, and the server machine 212 will be described. Since both can be realized by the same hardware configuration, the business flow analysis device 220 will be taken up and described.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the business flow analysis device 220. The business flow analysis device 220 includes a CPU (221), a main storage device 222, and an external storage device 223, a display 225 via a graphic processing device 224, a network 227 via a network connection device 226, and an input processing device 228. It is connected to the data input device 229 via. The external storage device 223 can also store the log information accumulated in the server machine of the business system 210 as a file. Further, the program is expanded in the main storage device 222 in a format that can be executed by the CPU (221), the data received from the data input device 229 is used as input information when the program is executed, and the output result of the program is displayed on the display 225. It is also possible to display in.

Next, the functional configuration of the business flow analysis device 220 will be described.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the business flow analysis device 220. The business flow analysis device 220 includes a business operation information storage unit 411, a flow extraction unit 412, a flow determination unit 413, a flow display unit 414, and a terminal work storage unit 415.
The work execution information storage unit 411 stores work execution information on the business system 210. The work execution information is information about who carried out which work under which kind of work, and in this embodiment, it is a set of data including a case ID, a work ID, and a time. .. FIG. 5 is a table showing the data structure of the work implementation information used in this embodiment. Note that it is assumed that the case ID (501) has been sorted in advance, and there are no records related to the case IDs = 01, 02, 11, and 12 except those appearing in FIG. Further, at the time (502), if i<j for integers i and j, time ti<tj. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the log information that is constantly output and accumulated for the operation or maintenance of the business system 210 can be acquired via the network 227 and the business execution information can be extracted.
The flow extraction unit 412 extracts the process instance from the work implementation information stored in the work implementation information storage unit 411. FIG. 6 is an example of a process instance extracted by the flow extracting unit 412. For the case where the case ID (601)=“01”, the work is performed in the order of I, II, and III.

The flow determination unit 413 determines the process instances of all the cases extracted by the flow extraction unit 412 according to the business flow determination method selected by the user who uses the business flow analysis device 220. In this embodiment, the flow determination unit 413 has two business flow determination methods. The first business flow determination method is a method for determining a business flow in which rework occurs, and when there is a work that appears twice in a process instance of a certain matter, from the work after the first appearance to the second The partial work sequence of is determined as "rework". Next, the second business flow determination method is a method of determining the business flow in which the business is suspended, and the business instance that does not include the “termination work” given in advance in the process instance of a certain matter is “business suspended”. To determine. FIG. 7 is a table 700 showing the output result of the flow determination unit 413. The table 700 is obtained by adding a judgment classification column to the case ID column, time column, and work ID column that the table of the work implementation information shown in FIG. 5 has. Regarding the first business flow determination method, in the process instance with the matter ID="02", the partial work sequence pointed to by the records 701 and 702 is determined to be "return", and the value of the determination category column is "return". It has become. Further, regarding the second business flow determination method, the process instance with the matter ID=“12” does not include the terminal work “III” stored in the terminal work storage unit 415 described later, and thus “work suspended”. Therefore, a record 703 indicating business interruption is added to the end of the process instance.
The flow display unit 414 displays the process instance determined by the flow determination unit 413 on the display 225 or the like of the business flow analysis device 220. FIG. 8 is a display example 800 that displays the output result 700 of the flow determination unit 413, but for convenience of description, a business flow 900 in the middle of drawing the business flow 800 will be described. The work flow 902 is judged to have the characteristic of "interruption" because the work has not reached the end, and the work flow 903 is judged to have the characteristic of "return" because the same work appears twice. The business flow 901 is determined to be “normal” because it has no particular characteristics. Each work flow is placed on the "interrupted" swimlane, "return" swimlane, and "normal" swimlane. For example, each work of the process instance (901) with the case ID = "01" is placed in the normal swimlane because the judgment classification is "normal", but the process with the case ID = "02" -In the instance (903), since the work classification at times t6 and t7 is rework, it is placed in the rework swim lane, but otherwise (= work at times t4, t5, and t8) is normal swim. It is located in the lane. In the business flow 900, the same work on the same swim lane is overlaid to obtain the business flow 800.

The terminal work storage unit 415 stores the value of the work identifier of the work that means the completion of the work. FIG. 10 is a table showing a termination work list stored in the termination work storage unit 415. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the work ID=“III” is the final work.

The operation of each unit in the functional configuration described above will be described below.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the flow extraction unit 412. The flow extraction unit 412 starts upon receiving the processing start of the business flow analysis device 220. The flow extraction unit 412 first acquires all the case IDs from the work implementation information stored in the work implementation information storage unit 411 (step S101). Steps S102 and S103 described below are repeated in this order for each case ID acquired in step S101. In step S102, the work implementation information related to the selected one matter ID is extracted. Taking the work implementation information shown in FIG. 5 as an example, when the selected case ID is “01”, records at times t1, t2, and t3 are extracted. Next, in step S103, the records extracted in step S102 are sorted in time series. In this way, the process instance related to each matter ID is extracted from the work implementation information stored in the work implementation information storage unit 411.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the flow determination unit 413. The flow determination unit 413 starts upon receiving the end of the flow extraction unit 412. The flow determination unit 413 first prompts the user of the business flow analysis device 220 to select from the business flow determination methods included in the flow determination unit 413 (step S201). FIG. 13 is a screen example 1300 in which the flow determination unit 413 prompts the user to select a business flow determination method. With respect to the business flow determination method, at least one of the business flow determination methods can be selected by using a screen element 1301 such as a check box. Note that in the business flow determination method selection screen example 1300, both of the business flow determination methods are selected. Then, by pressing a screen element 1302 such as a button, the user sends the selected determination method to the flow determination unit 413. Next, the flow determination unit 413 executes the process of the business flow determination method selected in step 201 (step S202).

Here, in step S202, at least one process is performed with respect to the first and second business flow determination methods. 14 and 15 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of the first and second business flow determination methods.
The processing procedure of the first business flow determination method will be described. The present process starts upon receiving the process start from step S202 of the flow determination unit 413. First, the flow determination unit 413 selects one from the process instances of all the cases extracted by the flow extraction unit 412 (S301). Next, it is checked whether or not the same work appears twice in the selected process instance, and if there is, the process proceeds to the next step 303, and if not, the process returns to step 301 (S302). In step 303, among the work that has appeared twice (referred to as R), the judgment category of each work from the work next to the work R of the first time to the work R that appeared last is set as “return”. If there is a next process instance, the process returns to step S301, and if not, the process of the first business flow determination method ends.

The processing procedure of the second business flow determination method will be described. The present process starts upon receiving the process start from step S202 of the flow determination unit 413. First, the flow determination unit 413 selects one from the process instances of all the cases extracted by the flow extraction unit 412 (S401). Next, it is checked whether or not the selected process instance includes the end work stored in the end work storage unit 415. If it is included, the process proceeds to the next step 403, and if it is not included, the process returns to step S401 (S402). In step 403, a work with a determination category of “suspend” is added to the end of the process instance with a work name of “dropout”, for example. If the next process instance exists, the process returns to step S401, and if not, the process of the second business flow determination method ends.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the flow display unit 414. This process is started upon receipt of the process completion of the flow determination unit 413. Here, the output result 700 of the flow determination unit 413 will be described as an example. First, the flow display unit 414 refers to the output result 700, and prepares swimlanes for the number of types of determination classification values (S501). In this example, the swim lane name was the judgment category value. Next, referring to the output result 700, one process instance is selected (S502). Next, each work of the process instance is arranged in the swim lane corresponding to the determination section (S503). In the example, the work is represented by a rounded square, and the work and the next work are connected by an arrow. Next, if the same work is performed in the same swim lane, they are overlapped (S504). If there is a next process instance, the process returns to step S502, and if not, this process ends.

120... Business system, 110... Computer

Claims (6)

A business flow analysis program for displaying, on a computer, a business flow automatically generated from log information of the business system for a business to be executed using the business system by determining the characteristics of the business flow. ,
The log information has a pair of a work identifier for identifying a work included in the log information, a case identifier for identifying a case included in the log information attached to the work, and a time when the work is performed. Have information,
A flow extraction step of generating a work sequence in which the work identifiers having the same matter identifier are arranged in time series,
From the work sequence group generated in the flow extraction step, if the same work identifier is included twice in the work sequence, it is determined that the work execution state of the work sequence is rework, and the work sequence When the work identifier indicating the end work is not included in the above, it is determined that the work implementation status of the work queue is suspended, and thus the characteristic relating to the work implementation status of the work queue is determined. A flow determination step,
A work flow analysis program that causes a computer to execute a flow display step of displaying the work sequences having different characteristics in a distinguished manner. In the business flow analysis program according to claim 1,
The business flow analysis program, wherein the characteristics include rework and interruption of the work. A business flow analysis system for determining a characteristic of a business flow automatically generated from log information of the business system for a business performed using the business system,
The log information has a pair of a work identifier for identifying a work included in the log information, a case identifier for identifying a case included in the log information attached to the work, and a time when the work is performed. Have information,
Flow extraction means for generating a work sequence in which the work identifiers having the same matter identifier are arranged in time series,
From the work sequence group generated by the flow extraction means, when the same work identifier is included twice in the work sequence, it is determined that the work implementation state of the work sequence is rework, and the work sequence When the work identifier indicating the end work is not included in the above, it is determined that the work implementation status of the work queue is suspended, and thus the characteristic relating to the work implementation status of the work queue is determined. Flow determination means,
A work flow analysis system, comprising: a flow display unit that distinguishes and displays the work sequences having different characteristics. In the business flow analysis system according to claim 3,
The business flow analysis system, wherein the characteristics include rework and interruption of the work. A business flow analysis method for displaying, on a computer, a business flow automatically generated from log information of the business system for a business performed by using the business system, by determining the characteristics of the business flow. ,
The log information has a pair of a work identifier for identifying a work included in the log information, a case identifier for identifying a case included in the log information attached to the work, and a time when the work is performed. Have information,
The computer is
Generate a work sequence in which the work identifiers having the same matter identifier are arranged in time series,
If the same work identifier is included twice in the work sequence from the generated work sequence group, it is determined that the work execution state of the work sequence is rework, and the end work is indicated in the work sequence. When the work identifier is not included, it is determined that the work status of the work held by the work queue is suspended, thereby determining the characteristic relating to the work status of the work held by the work queue,
A work flow analysis method, wherein the work sequences having different characteristics are displayed separately. The business flow analysis method according to claim 5,
The business flow analysis method, wherein the characteristics include rework and interruption of the work.

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