DE102015009804A1 - Overall process control system with virtual control center for working groups, which deal with the conception, production and / or adaptation as well as delivery of software - Google Patents

Abstract

Overall process control system with virtual control center for working groups involved in the design, production and / or adaptation and delivery of software, where a. the control system requires the enforcement of a comparatively high degree of digitization and automation of all work processes in the organization and enables and further enhances this degree, characterized in that it provides verifiable powerful standard automation modules with new as possible high-performance hardware support (such as the use of CUDA and / or FPGA or Embedded Linux [36] b) the control system extends over all value-creating processes in the organization independently of the technical platforms used, characterized in that they are all captured quantitatively in the form of multidimensional measurement series and combined with each other by means of statistical methods in formal traceable, including technical requirements or specification texts such as specifications and specifications, as well as other project documentation available in digital form and in a machine-readable format n located on available storage media and / or databases; c. the control system enables automated, real-time reporting, with interactive, hardware-independent visual representation of the entire value chain on the virtual control room from the aggregated measurement data in configurable and adjustable levels of detail, characterized in that simplified the system for users with and without technical training Provide aggregated data through enterprise customization options such as an interactive, flexible data exploration mode or interchangeable, configurable, or adaptive process models; d. formal process optimization according to Lean Six Sigma method is possible, characterized in that all steps in the organization immediately d. H. be measured by means of virtual sensor technology; e. the control system implements machine-learning approaches to promote automated problem recognition and to assist people in the solution adaptively and interactively, as well as to identify and store previously unknown or company-specific performance indicators (KPI) in software engineering, characterized in that by human beings -Machine interactions exchange and

Description

Technical area

The present invention relates to a novel device for the acquisition and presentation of controlling and optimization-relevant technical information from manual and automated EDP operations, in particular but not exclusively, the present invention relates to a device for real-time, universal acquisition and consistent adaptive and interactive Presentation of information about processes and work results in software manufacturing technology from commissioning and conception through design and implementation to configuration, testing, acceptance, commissioning and operation. The aim of this invention is to enable interdisciplinary specialist teams to record, analyze and optimize the entire value chain in an IT organization with minimal effort.

Terms / Glossary

• • Automationstechnik,
• • Business Analysis,
• • IT-Projektmanagement,
• • IT-Controlling,
• • industrielle Prozess-Optimierung/Lean Management,
• • Messtechnik,
• • Produktionstechnik,
• • Software-Technik,
• • statistische Verfahren,
• • sowie Virtuelle Realität

zusammen, daher erscheint eine begriffliche Kurz-Übersicht der Fachbegriffe an dieser Stelle sinnvoll (in jeder entsprechenden Fachwelt sind diese Begriffe jedoch weit verbreitet, daher die allgemeinen Definitionen und Wortwahl basieren auf der beruflichen Erfahrung des Patent-Anmelders sowie frei nach dem Wikipedia-Material; für eingehende fachliche Betrachtung s. Quellenverzeichnis). Das Glossar befindet sich am Ende dieses Dokuments.The present invention arose through strong interdisciplinary work and communication and leads several disciplines such as

• • automation technology,
• • Business Analysis,
• • IT project management,
• • IT controlling,
• • industrial process optimization / lean management,
• • Measuring technology,
• • production technology,
• • software technology,
• • statistical procedures,
• • as well as virtual reality

therefore, a conceptual summary of the technical terms appears useful at this juncture (however, these terms are widely used in any relevant art community; therefore, the general definitions and wording are based on the patent applicant's professional experience as well as the Wikipedia material; for detailed technical consideration see source list). The glossary is at the end of this document.

State of the art

Outwardly similar devices of this kind are known from the state of the art, for example, in the form of operating control stations [1], [34] or software dashboards [2]. Today's IT industry offers a very heterogeneous and dynamic landscape of software tools to support software manufacturing and related work processes, as well as a variety of possible procedural models or measures with varying degrees of formalization [37] that are more organizational than technical.

These known representations are each aimed at specific user specialist groups in one or the other phase of the software value chain and are usually rather difficult to access for specialists from the other (even adjoining) areas of expertise.

• 1) Eine einheitliche, übergreifende Messung und Vergleichbarkeit von echten Systemdaten möglich wäre;
• 2) Eine klare Bezugsherstellung zur tatsächlichen Wertschöpfung durch Herstellung von Software und angebundenen Arbeitsprozessen (also über Leistungskennzahlen (KPI) aus dem operativen Software-Betrieb hinaus) möglich wäre; insbesondere sollen kostenintensive Fehler- und Fehlkonzept-Auswirkungen erkennbar sowie deren teils automatische Früherkennung über die gesamte Wertschöpfungsskette möglich gemacht werden;
• 3) Eine möglichst intuitive und interaktive Darstellung unternehmensübergreifender Produktionsdaten speziell in dieser Branche möglich wäre, insbesondere mit hoher Zugänglichkeit für fachfremde Spezialisten wie z. B. Prozessoptimierer oder Top-Manager. (Anmerkung: genau diese Ansätze werden für andere Branchen unter dem Stichwort Industrie 4.0 [3] derzeit massiv verfolgt; dennoch befindet sich die IT-Industrie de facto erst bei der Industrie 2.0, da durchgängige Digitalisierung und Automatisierung der IT-Betriebe [4], [5] erst noch entsteht).

At present, due to the variety and dynamics in the industry mentioned above, no process or control system for this field of application is known, which provides a uniform, integrating view of all process phases, for example according to ITIL or ISO 9001 or in any other uniformly structured way, such that:

• 1) A uniform, comprehensive measurement and comparability of real system data would be possible;
• 2) A clear reference to the actual value creation through production of software and connected work processes (ie beyond key performance indicators (KPI) from the operative software operation) would be possible; In particular, cost-intensive error and misconception effects are to be made recognizable and their partly automatic early detection over the entire value added chain made possible;
• 3) An intuitive and interactive representation of cross-company production data would be possible especially in this industry, in particular with high accessibility for non-specialist such. Eg process optimizer or top manager. (Note: exactly these approaches are currently being massively pursued for other sectors under the heading Industry 4.0 [3]), but the IT industry is de facto only in the area of Industry 2.0, as integrated digitization and automation of IT operations [4], [5] still arises).

• 1) Durch das komplexe, mit viel manueller Arbeit zur Datenerfassung verbundene Berichtwesen wesentliche Aufwände entstehen
• 2) Alle methodischen Werkzeuge sowie software-technischen Komponenten zur Messung der Wertschöpfung bereits heute ansatzweise vorhanden sind und bei fortschrittlichen IT-Organisationen sogar länger im Einsatz, was zur überdurchschnittlichen Performance-Steigerung führt [5], [7].
• 3) Durch den Faktor Mensch keine transparente, objektive, auf realen Messdaten basierende Vergleichbarkeit der Arbeitsqualität möglich ist (was den Wettbewerb bedeutend erschwert).
• 4) Diese Art von Betriebsorganisation orientiert sich primär an der reinen Dienstleistung und definiert keine formalen technischen Einstiegkriterien auf der niedrigen Granularität, d. h. ein Entwickler-Team könnte theoretisch unreflektiert eigene technischen Lösungen erarbeiten, obwohl es frei verfügbare Standard-Komponenten gibt, Anzahl bekannter solcher Komponenten nur für Oracle Java EE Plattform [8] liegt derzeit bei ca. 1 Million Software-Bibliotheken [9] und ca. 70000 Vorlagen für integrierte virtuelle Linux-Umgebungen [10].

Instead, most of today's companies use controlling approaches for their IT service providers, based on mature and model-based, but narrative methods of manual time recording (which is very vague from a measurable data point of view), as well as reporting and reporting [6 ]. However, this approach is not sustainable in the eyes of the patent applicant because

• 1) Complex reporting that involves a lot of manual data collection work will be a significant expense
• 2) All methodological tools as well as software-technical components for measuring the value added are already present to some extent and are even used by progressive IT organizations even longer, which leads to above-average performance increase leads [5], [7].
• 3) The human factor does not allow transparent, objective comparability of work quality based on real measurement data (which makes competition much more difficult).
• 4) This type of business organization is primarily based on the pure service and does not define formal technical entry criteria on the low granularity, ie a development team could theoretically develop their own technical solutions without reflection, although there are freely available standard components, number of known such components only for Oracle Java EE platform [8] currently has about 1 million software libraries [9] and about 70000 templates for integrated virtual Linux environments [10].

In complex IT organizations today, therefore, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the measurable, actually generated added value, for example, with the resolution of one person's days, realistic delivery dates and actually existing risks [11]. Even the middle management has rather inaccurate status information and relies only on reports and vague informal communications (umgs. "Flurfunk"), while numerous and complex IT operations a both a secure and largely disregarded source of diverse multi-dimensional real process data are.

Presentation of the invention

• 1) Große Teile des zeitbasierten Berichtswesens durch Echtzeit-Messungen der realen Wertschöpfung unternehmensübergreifend deutlich zu mindern.
• 2) Das Problem der in komplexen dynamischen Umgebungen ständig veralteten technischen Dokumentationen stark zu mindern, da viele Informationen entweder stark formalisiert und dadurch maschinell verarbeitet und ausgewertet werden können [12], [13], oder direkt durch Sensoren (in der Software-Welt durch spezielle API-Konnektoren [14], [15], [16] abbildbar) erfasst und speichert.
• 3) Kommunikation und Qualitätsmanagement wesentlich zu vereinfachen sowie allgemeine psychische Entlastung [17], [18] durch Senkung von den o. g. Unsicherheiten in allen Unternehmensbereichen.
• 4) Eine objektive Vergleichbarkeit der Arbeitsergebnisse und der Arbeitsqualität zu schaffen, auch über die Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg.
• 5) Industrielle Methoden zur Optimierung der Qualität etwa nach Lean Six Sigma [19] zu ermöglichen (Six Sigma Optimierungsverfahren erfordern ausschließlich strikt physikalisch messbare Größen. Messungen durch Befragungen/Berichterstellungen sind in diesem Kontext buchstäblich wertlos).

The object of the present invention is to provide a device which enables IT organizations to

• 1) Significantly reduce large parts of the time-based reporting by real-time measurements of real value creation across companies.
• 2) To greatly reduce the problem of technical documentation that is constantly obsolete in complex dynamic environments, as much information can either be highly formalized and thereby machine-processed and evaluated [12], [13], or directly by sensors (in the software world) special API connectors [14], [15], [16] mappable) is detected and stored.
• 3) significantly simplify communication and quality management as well as general mental relief [17], [18] by lowering the above-mentioned uncertainties in all divisions.
• 4) Achieve objective comparability of work results and quality of work, even across company boundaries.
• 5) To enable industrial methods to optimize quality according to Lean Six Sigma [19] (Six sigma optimization methods require only strictly physically measurable quantities, measurements by surveys / reports are literally worthless in this context).

The approach of this device will dramatically accelerate communication processes and operations, dramatically reduce costs, and ensure complete transparency of technical processes in IT organizations, all of which will significantly increase the growth and competitiveness of these IT organizations.

• 1) Fortgeschrittene, hardware-beschleunigte Automation in der Software-Herstellungstechnik [4], [13], [20], mit Einsatz von virtuellen Daten-Sensoren (d. h. anstatt realer physikalischen Eigenschaften werden reale Zahlen bzw. Zustände der Systeme ermittelt und gespeichert);
• 2) Erstellung, Speicherung und Darstellung der aggregierten, kumulierten sowie abgeleiteten Daten und Kennzahlen als interaktive, echtzeit-fähige Visualisierung mit und ohne 3D, Darstellungen, bevorzugt, aber nicht ausschließlich in (Augmented) Virtual Reality [21], [22], bzw. auf hochauflösenden Industrie-Displays;
• 3) Anwenden von Hybrid-Ansätzen aus Objekt-orientierter Analyse [23] und Prozessmodellierung [12], [24], in Form von Regeln-Sätzen kombiniert mit Text Mining [25] formalisierten Best Practice-Modellen [26] sowie Lean Six Sigma [19] Prozess-Optimierung zur Senkung der Wartezeiten in der Entwicklung sowie Steigerung der Wertschöpfung.

The present invention is based on the integration of the following innovative basic technologies, some of which are already available on the market, some of which are still under research:

• 1) Advanced, hardware-accelerated automation in software manufacturing [4], [13], [20], using virtual data sensors (ie instead of real physical properties real numbers or states of the systems are determined and stored) ;
• 2) Creation, storage and presentation of the aggregated, accumulated and derived data and key figures as interactive, real-time capable visualization with and without 3D, representations, preferably, but not exclusively in (Augmented) Virtual Reality [21], [22], resp on high-resolution industrial displays;
• 3) Apply hybrid approaches from object-oriented analysis [23] and process modeling [12], [24], in the form of rulesets combined with text mining [25] formalized best practice models [26] and lean six sigma [19] Process optimization to reduce waiting times in development and increase added value.

Brief description of the drawings

Drawing A illustrates a reference architecture according to the invention for a particular phase of software engineering operations, namely creation and delivery of source code in collaborative, often geographically distributed environments.

In this simplified representation, data about 2 virtual sensors (API convectors) for the source code repository and Continouos Integration device are captured and displayed as an example.

Meaning of the color code in this figure (as of July 2015): blue - modules in productive use, the structure is widespread in more perfomerated IT organizations; green - modules still to be specified and developed, technically they are trivial; White - The subject of current applied research, application examples already in industrial use but not yet in the form in the IT industry.

Drawing B shows how the approach of this invention can be uniformly and comprehensively scaled to all value-creating phases in IT organizations. So it is u. a. already an existing research result that specification texts (such as specifications, change requests, technical documentation) can be formally evaluated by means of data mining approaches [35]. Corresponding source code evaluations are already state of the art [26].

The two drawings show how highly complex live reports based on multidimensional, real-time data can be presented interactively to any stakeholder in a way that is appropriate for the viewer.

Adherence to the image licenses to CC (Creatives Commons) [27] the photo with the user with a VR glasses is contribution of Salud [28]. The data visualization examples are a contribution from SIGSPL.org (Special Interest Group for Software Production Lines) [29].

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited non-patent literature

• ISO 9001 [0005]

Claims (2)

Overall process control system with virtual control center for working groups involved in the design, production and / or adaptation and delivery of software, where a. the control system requires the enforcement of a comparatively high degree of digitization and automation of all work processes in the organization and enables and further enhances this degree, characterized in that it provides verifiable powerful standard automation modules with new as possible high-performance hardware support (such as the use of CUDA and / or FPGA or Embedded Linux [36] b) the control system extends over all value-creating processes in the organization independently of the technical platforms used, characterized in that they are all captured quantitatively in the form of multidimensional measurement series and combined with each other by means of statistical methods in formal traceable, including technical requirements or specification texts such as specifications and specifications, as well as other project documentation available in digital form and in a machine-readable format n located on available storage media and / or databases; c. the control system enables automated, real-time reporting, with interactive, hardware-independent visual representation of the entire value chain on the virtual control room from the aggregated measurement data in configurable and adjustable levels of detail, characterized in that simplified the system for users with and without technical training Provide aggregated data through enterprise customization options such as an interactive, flexible data exploration mode or interchangeable, configurable, or adaptive process models; d. formal process optimization according to the Lean Six Sigma method is possible, characterized in that all work steps in the organization can be measured directly, ie by means of virtual sensor technology; e. the control system implements machine-learning approaches to promote automated problem recognition and to assist people in the solution adaptively and interactively, as well as to identify and store previously unknown or company-specific performance indicators (KPI) in software engineering, characterized in that by human beings -Machine interactions exchange and The control center for the presentation of software-related processes in the entire enterprise, which manufactures and delivers software, a) characterized in that this control center is virtual (as part of a cyber-physical system in the Internet of Things), ie this supports output on any appropriate hardware as a terminal and in any appropriate format, as well as any reasonable level of detail, such as: a. common multi-monitor systems and / or mobile devices; b. high-resolution industrial displays / display walls; c. VR / AR glasses and devices as well as other immersive environments; d. Automatic generation of written reports with and / or without graphical representations. b) and characterized in that it is able to display representations of any computing operations on the basis of real measurement data according to a given visualization model.

Images