JP2008152506A - Execution procedure verification device, and execution procedure verification program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily verify whether or not an execution procedure for each process in business (business process) performed by executing a plurality of processes complies with requirements such as laws, company provisions and standards revised after the procedure has been prepared. <P>SOLUTION: This execution procedure verification device RS holds execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure for the plurality of processes executed to perform the business, in an execution procedure information storage part 14, holds requirement information of correlating information indicating one portion of process in the execution procedure information with information indicating a requirement concerned in execution of the process, in a requirement storage part 17, carries out partial verification process for verifying whether the execution procedure information complies with the requirement information or not, by a verification means 18, when receiving an assignment of the execution procedure information and the requirement information from a user by an input and output part 13, and outputs a result of the partial verification process by the input and output part 13. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an execution procedure verification apparatus and an execution procedure verification program.

Various techniques have been proposed in the past for the execution procedure of each process in a business (business process) executed by executing a plurality of processes.
As a conventional technique related to a business process execution procedure, for example, a technique for providing a language for describing a right relationship indicated by a legal expression has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
In addition, as a conventional technique for creating a business process execution procedure, for example, an editor for creating and modifying a business process execution procedure using a graphical representation has been proposed. For example, an editor is prepared by applying AI planning technology. A technique for automatically generating an execution procedure from a rule that has been proposed has been proposed (see Patent Document 2).

JP 2005-524177 A JP 2004-062536 A

  Business process execution procedures are required to comply with laws and regulations, internal regulations and standards. This is not only in compliance with existing laws and internal regulations and standards when building new execution procedures, but also in compliance with laws and internal regulations and standards that have been revised since then. Need to be. In addition, there is a case where it is desired to verify a certain execution procedure from the viewpoint of observing a plurality of laws and regulations, internal regulations and standards.

Among conventional techniques, for example, editors using graphical representations do not clearly define restrictions and preferences for creation and modification, and cannot guarantee compliance with laws, regulations, internal regulations, and standards. There is an operation method that prepares forms and templates that comply with laws and regulations, internal regulations, standards, etc., and creates and modifies execution procedures based on these forms, but changes are made when laws, regulations, internal regulations, standards, etc. are changed. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the range and contents of the execution procedure and check whether the execution procedure satisfies the change, which is a burden on the creator and the corrector of the execution procedure. In particular, as the execution procedure increases, the burden on the creator and the like increases, so an efficient verification method has been desired.
Further, for example, the conventional technique applying the AI planning technique is used when a new execution procedure is generated. Therefore, when a rule is changed, it cannot be checked whether an existing execution procedure satisfies this.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional circumstances, and the execution procedure of each process in a business (business process) executed by executing a plurality of processes is revised after the creation of laws and regulations, in-house regulations and standards. The purpose is to provide a technology that can easily grasp whether or not it conforms to such constraints.

  The first aspect of the present invention is the first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating the execution procedure of a plurality of processes executed in order to perform business, and information indicating a part of the processing in the execution procedure information. And a second holding unit that holds constraint information that associates information indicating a constraint related to the execution of the processing, and the execution procedure information that is held in the first holding unit is held in the second holding unit An execution procedure verification apparatus comprising: a verification unit that performs a partial verification process that verifies whether or not the restriction information is matched; and an output unit that outputs a result of the partial verification process.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the first aspect, the execution procedure verification device further includes an instruction receiving unit that receives designation of execution procedure information and constraint information from a user, The verification means is an execution procedure verification apparatus that performs a partial verification process based on the specified constraint information for the specified execution procedure information.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the first aspect, the execution procedure verification device adds constraint information to the second holding means or holds the second holding means in the second holding means. A constraint information monitoring unit that detects a change in the constraint information that has been added, and the verification unit adds the constraint information to the second holding unit or changes the constraint information held in the second holding unit. An execution procedure verification apparatus that performs a partial verification process based on the restriction information for the execution procedure information held in the first holding means in response to detection by the restriction information monitoring means. .

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the third aspect, the execution procedure verification device calculates a representation value representing the content of the restriction information by performing a predetermined operation on the restriction information. The constraint information representation value calculating means is further provided, the representation value is added to the constraint information held in the second holding means, and the constraint information monitoring means is held in the second holding means. When the representation value added to the constraint information is changed, the execution procedure verification device detects that the constraint information to which the changed representation value is added is added or changed.

  The present invention according to claim 5 is a first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure of a plurality of processes executed in order to carry out a business, and information indicating a part of processing in the execution procedure information A second holding unit that holds constraint information that associates the information indicating the constraint relating to the execution of the processing and a third information that holds integrated information for integrating the verification results of the plurality of constraint information Each of the holding means and the execution procedure information held in the first holding means is verified to be compatible with a plurality of pieces of constraint information related to the integrated information held in the third holding means, and each verification result An execution procedure verification apparatus comprising: an integrated verification unit that performs an integrated verification process that integrates the information based on the integrated information; and an output unit that outputs a result of the integrated verification process.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the fifth aspect, the execution procedure verification device further includes an instruction receiving unit that receives designation of execution procedure information and integrated information from a user, The verification means is characterized in that an integrated verification process based on the specified integrated information is performed on the specified execution procedure information.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the fifth aspect, the execution procedure verification device adds constraint information to the second holding unit or holds it in the second holding unit. A constraint information monitoring unit that detects a change in the constraint information that has been added, and the verification unit adds the constraint information to the second holding unit or changes the constraint information held in the second holding unit. In accordance with the detection by the constraint monitoring unit, an integrated verification process based on the integrated information related to the constraint information is performed on the execution procedure information held by the first holding unit.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the seventh aspect, the execution procedure verification device performs a predetermined operation on the constraint information to calculate a representation value representing the content of the constraint information. The constraint information representation value calculating means is further provided, the representation value is added to the constraint information held in the second holding means, and the constraint information monitoring means is held in the second holding means. When the representation value added to the constraint information is changed, the execution procedure verification device detects that the constraint information to which the changed representation value is added is added or changed.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the fifth aspect, the execution procedure verification device adds integrated information to the third holding unit or holds it in the third holding unit. Integrated information monitoring means for detecting a change in the integrated information, wherein the verification means adds the integrated information to the third holding means or changes the integrated information held in the third holding means. An execution procedure verification apparatus that performs an integrated verification process based on the integration information for the execution procedure information held in the first holding unit in response to detection by the integrated information monitoring unit. .

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the execution procedure verification device according to the ninth aspect, the execution procedure verification device performs a predetermined operation on the integrated information to calculate a representation value representing the content of the integrated information. Integrated information representation value calculating means, and the representation value is added to the integrated information held in the third holding means, and the integrated information monitoring means is held in the third holding means. When the representation value added to the integrated information changes, the execution procedure verification device detects that the integrated information to which the changed representation value is added is added or changed.

  The present invention according to claim 11 is a first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating execution procedures of a plurality of processes executed by a computer for performing business, and a part of the processing in the execution procedure information. Second holding means for holding constraint information that associates information indicating the information related to the execution of the processing with information indicating the restriction on execution of the processing, and execution procedure information held in the first holding means is stored in the second holding means. An execution procedure verification program for functioning as a verification unit that performs partial verification processing for verifying whether or not the stored constraint information is matched and an output unit that outputs a result of the partial verification processing.

  The present invention according to claim 12 is a first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating execution procedures of a plurality of processes executed by a computer for performing business, and a part of the processing in the execution procedure information. Second holding means for holding constraint information in which the information to be displayed is associated with information indicating the constraint relating to the execution of the processing, and third information for holding integrated information for integrating the respective verification results by the plurality of constraint information Each of the holding means and the execution procedure information held in the first holding means is verified to match a plurality of pieces of constraint information related to the integrated information held in the third holding means. Is an execution procedure verification program for functioning as an integrated verification means for performing an integrated verification process for integrating the information on the basis of the integrated information and an output means for outputting a result of the integrated verification process.

According to the execution procedure verification apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to verify whether a part of the processing in the execution procedure information related to a business (business process) executed by executing a plurality of processes conforms to the constraints. It is possible to easily verify the processing related to the internal regulations and standards.
Further, the user can manually instruct verification, or can automatically perform verification according to detection of addition or change of constraint information.
In addition, since the addition or update of constraint information can be detected using a representation value calculated from each information, for example, a completely different representation value (for example, a digest value) is used in spite of a partial difference in information. Thus, detection of addition or update of each information can be performed efficiently.

According to the execution procedure verification device according to the present invention, the result of verifying whether or not a part of the process in the execution procedure information related to the work executed by executing a plurality of processes meets the restrictions is integrated, and the execution procedure information is the whole. It can be verified whether the constraints are met.
In addition, the user can manually instruct verification, and verification can be automatically performed according to detection of addition or change of constraint information and integrated information.
In addition, since the addition or update of the constraint information and the integrated information can be detected using the representation value calculated from each information, for example, a completely different representation value (for example, a digest value) despite a partial difference in information. By using, it is possible to efficiently detect addition or update of each information.

  According to the execution procedure verification program according to the present invention, whether or not a part of processing in the execution procedure information related to a task executed by executing a plurality of processes by means of each unit functioned by the computer by executing the program meets the restrictions. Therefore, it is possible to easily verify the processing related to the revised laws and regulations, in-house regulations and standards.

  According to the execution procedure verification program according to the present invention, whether or not a part of processing in the execution procedure information related to a task executed by executing a plurality of processes by means of each unit functioned by the computer by executing the program meets the restrictions. As a result, it is possible to verify whether the execution procedure information as a whole meets the constraints.

The present invention will be specifically described based on examples.
As a first embodiment according to the present invention, an execution procedure defined by a travel agency side system as a travel reservation availability inquiry service (business process) in response to a travel reservation availability inquiry request received from a customer side system The travel reservation system that sequentially inquires the hotel side system, the railroad company side system, and the rental car company side whether the reservation is possible or not and returns the travel reservation availability based on the inquiry result to the customer side system will be described.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of the travel reservation system. A travel agency side system RS is connected via a public network N to a customer side system CS, a T rental car side system SS1, a hotel A side system SS2, and a hotel B. It is connected to the side system SS3 and the S electric railway side system SS4.

  The travel agent side system RS includes a message transmission / reception unit 11, a message storage unit 12, an input / output unit 13, an execution procedure storage unit 14, a business process execution processing unit 15, a verification process control unit 16, a constraint storage unit 17, and a verification unit 18. The functional units such as the logical formula storage unit 19, the logical formula calculation unit 20, and the verification result storage unit 21 are connected by the private network 10 and have a function as an execution procedure verification device according to the present invention.

The message transmission / reception unit 11 transmits / receives messages (inquiry request information, inquiry result information, etc.) to / from other systems via the public network N.
The message storage unit 12 stores and holds messages transmitted to and received from other systems.
The input / output unit 13 outputs various information by a display device such as a liquid crystal display or a printing device and presents the information to the user, or receives various instructions from the user by an input device such as a keyboard / mouse. For example, it provides functions such as a business process execution instruction and its result display, a business process verification instruction and its result display, input / output of data stored in each storage unit, and start / stop of the apparatus.

The execution procedure storage unit 14 stores and holds execution procedure information describing the execution procedure of the business process.
The business process execution processing unit 15 executes processing based on the specified execution procedure information in accordance with the specification of the execution procedure information by the user.
The verification process control unit 16 controls the operation of the entire verification process.

The constraint storage unit 17 stores constraint information in which specific information indicating a part of processing (one or a plurality of processes) constituting a business process execution procedure is associated with constraint content information indicating a constraint related to the execution of the process. Keep in memory.
The verification unit 18 performs a partial verification process for verifying whether or not the execution procedure information matches the constraint information in accordance with the instructions of the execution procedure information and the constraint information.

The logical expression storage unit 19 stores and holds logical expressions (integrated information) that collectively form verification results based on individual constraint information and form the verification results as a whole. The logical expression of this example is configured by combining operands composed of constraint information with three operators, AND, OR, and NOT.
In response to the instruction of the logical expression, the logical expression calculation unit 20 performs integrated verification processing that integrates the results of the partial verification processing by the verification unit 18 according to the logical expression.

  The verification result storage unit 21 stores and holds the result of the partial verification process using individual constraint information by the verification unit 18 and the result of the integrated verification process by the logical expression calculation unit 20. The result of the partial verification process is held in association with the constraint information used for the verification, and the result of the integrated verification process is held in association with the logical expression used for the verification.

In this example, “constraint rule” is used as the constraint information, with respect to a part of the process specified by the specific information, the constraint related to the presence or absence of a predetermined process. In the present invention, in addition to the restriction, a restriction related to a relationship between a plurality of processes (for example, a restriction related to the execution order of the processes, a restriction related to whether or not a subsequent process can be executed according to the execution result of the preceding process), a process Various constraints such as a unique constraint (for example, a constraint related to an attribute added at the time of executing a process) can be used.
In this example, an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that conforms to the metadata definition unique to the system is used as execution procedure information, and the business process execution processing unit 15 sequentially interprets and executes the XML document.

FIG. 2 shows an example of execution procedure information in which a business process of inquiry about travel reservation is described as an XML document.
In this example, only the transmission and reception counterparts and the data format specified in the description of the execution procedure information are permitted when the business process is executed. An attribute name including “stored variable” indicates that the variable indicated by the attribute value is used as a result of processing substitution or as an argument when executing a business process. For example, in the “transmission” element, a variable in which data to be transmitted is stored is indicated in the “transmission data storage variable” attribute. In the “calculation” element, the result of the calculation is assigned to the “calculation result storage variable” attribute.

The description of the execution procedure information shown in FIG. 2 will be described more specifically. For example, the “transmission” element on the fourth line is “transmission data format” for the “accommodation type” reservation specified by the “transmission destination type” attribute. Inquiry request information in the “Reservation availability inquiry form” format specified in the “Transmission data storage variable” attribute is stored in the “Inquiry” variable specified in the “Transmission data storage variable” attribute, and the “Hotel” specified in the “Destination” attribute This means that the process is to be transmitted to the “A side system”.
Further, for example, the “Reception” element on the 5th line includes a “boolean” format inquiry result information specified by the “Reception data format” attribute, and a “Hotel reservation availability” variable specified by the “Reception data storage variable” attribute. It means that the process is received from the “hotel A side system” specified by the “reception destination” attribute.
Further, for example, the “calculation” element on the 10th to 16th lines indicates the calculation result of the subordinate “logical product” element (11th to 15th lines) as “travel reservation availability” specified by the “calculation result storage variable” attribute. "It means that the process is stored in a variable.

FIG. 3 shows a conceptual diagram of a message delivery sequence between the systems when the travel reservation availability inquiry business process is executed according to the execution procedure information of FIG.
When the travel agency side system RS receives the message (inquiry request information) in the “reservation inquiry form” format from the customer side system CS by the message transmission / reception 11, the business process execution processing unit 15 causes the hotel A side system SS2 and S Electric Railway to A message (inquiry request information) in the “reservation inquiry form” format is transmitted by message transmission / reception 11 to each of the side system SS4 and the T rental car side system SS1. When the travel agency side system RS receives a message (inquiry result information) in “boolean” format (true or false) returned as an inquiry result from each system, the business process execution processing unit 15 performs the logical AND operation. Is returned to the customer side system CS as a message (inquiry result information).

Such an execution procedure has no problem when the priority is not set in the travel agency for the use of the hotel A or the hotel B. This is because the execution procedure only needs to include transmission / reception with the hotel A-side system or transmission / reception with the hotel B-side system.
Here, it is assumed that the travel agency decides to use only the hotel B for hotel use. Such a situation may occur due to an incentive contract from a hotel to a travel agency or a partnership between a hotel and a travel agency.

In this example, as a method of expressing the constraints that the business process execution procedure must satisfy for the use of such other systems,
(1) A specific element (process) that must exist in the description of the execution procedure, or an element existence rule that expresses an element (process) that should not exist (2) A logic that uses an element existence rule as an operand Expressed with an expression.

That is, when it is decided to use only the hotel B as an accommodation facility, the element existence rule and the logical expression can be described as follows.
Element existence rule X = [There is a “transmission” element whose “transmission destination type” attribute matches “accommodation facility” and whose “transmission destination” attribute matches “hotel B side system”]
Element existence rule Y = [There is no “transmission” element whose “transmission destination type” attribute matches “accommodation facility” and whose “transmission destination” attribute does not match “hotel B side system”]
Logical expression Z = [element existence rule X] AND [element existence rule Y]
In this example, the XML document is used to describe the execution procedure, and the element existence rules and logical expressions are described according to “W3C XML Schema”.

  The element existence rules X and Y and the logical expression Z are held in the constraint storage unit 17 and the logical expression storage unit 19, respectively. In this example, the input / output unit 13 accepts a verification instruction from the user. The verification is performed by the verification unit 18 and the logical expression calculation unit 20 under the control of the verification processing control unit 16.

The execution procedure information verification process by the travel agency side system RS of this example will be described with reference to the process flow shown in FIG.
In this example, the input / output unit 13 displays a list of execution procedure information in the execution procedure storage unit 14 and a list of logical expressions in the logical expression storage unit 19 for specifying and verifying execution procedure information to be verified. The specification of the logical expression to be used is received from the user.

The verification process starts when the input / output unit 13 receives the specification of the execution procedure information to be verified and the logical expression used for verification from the user (step S11).
First, the verification processing control unit 16 identifies an element existence rule (constraint information) included as an operand in the designated logical expression, and uses the designated execution procedure information and each identified element existence rule. The verification unit 18 is instructed to perform the partial verification processing. The verification unit 18 verifies the presence / absence of the corresponding element in the instructed execution procedure information based on the instructed element existence rule, and stores each verification result in the verification result storage unit 21 (step S12). .
When the partial verification processing using all the element existence rules is completed, the verification processing control unit 16 instructs the logical expression calculation unit 20 to perform integrated verification processing using the specified logical expression. The logical expression calculation unit 20 integrates the individual verification results with the specified logical expression, and outputs the integration result as a result of the entire verification process by the input / output unit 13 and presents it to the user (step S13).

  Specifically, when the execution procedure information shown in FIG. 2 and the logical expression Z are designated by the user, the execution procedure information is included in the element existence rules X and Y included as operands in the logical expression Z. First of all, verify whether it fits. In the verification using the element existence rule X, the “transmission” element on the fourth line in FIG. 2 corresponds to the “transmission” element whose “transmission destination type” attribute matches “accommodation facility”. Since the attribute is not a “transmission” element that matches the “hotel B side system”, the verification result is “false”. In the verification using the element existence rule Y, the “transmission” element on the fourth line in FIG. 2 corresponds to the “transmission” element whose “transmission destination type” attribute matches “accommodation facility”. Since the “destination” attribute is a “transmission” element that does not match the “hotel B side system”, the verification result is “false”. Therefore, when these verification results are integrated by the logical expression Z, the result becomes “false (false)”, and information indicating that the execution procedure information does not conform to the logical expression Z is output by the input / output unit 13.

Thereby, the user can easily grasp that the execution procedure information does not conform to the constraints, and can recognize that the execution procedure information needs to be corrected.
In this example, the specification of execution procedure information and a logical expression (integrated information) is accepted, and the execution procedure information is verified using each element existence rule (constraint information) included as an operand in the logical expression. The integration result obtained by integrating the verification results is output, but the respective verification results may be output. Alternatively, the specification of execution procedure information and element existence rules may be received, and the result of verifying the execution procedure information using the element existence rules may be output.

A second embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The execution procedure verification device RS in FIG. 5 includes an input / output unit 13, an execution procedure storage unit 14, a verification processing control unit 16, a constraint storage unit 17, a verification unit 18, a logical expression storage unit 19, a logical expression calculation unit 20, and a verification result. The functional units such as the storage unit 21, the specific information storage unit 22, the extraction unit 23, and the extraction result storage unit 24 are connected by the private network 10 and have a function as an execution procedure verification device according to the present invention. . As with the execution procedure verification device RS of the first embodiment, the message receiving unit 11, the message storage unit 12, and the business process execution processing unit 15 are also included, but are omitted in this example.

  The input / output unit 13 outputs various information by a display device such as a liquid crystal display or a printing device and presents it to the user, or receives various instructions from the user by an input device such as a keyboard / mouse. For example, it provides functions such as a business process execution instruction and its result display, a business process verification instruction and its result display, input / output of data stored in each storage unit, and start / stop of the apparatus.

The execution procedure storage unit 14 stores and holds execution procedure information describing the execution procedure of the business process. In this example, a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) document is held as execution procedure information.
The verification process control unit 16 controls the operation of the entire verification process.

The specific information storage unit 22 stores and holds specific information indicating a part of processing (one or a plurality of processes) constituting the execution procedure of the business process. In this example, XQuery, which is a query language for XML documents, is used as the description format of the specific information.
The extraction unit 23 extracts a part of the process corresponding to the specific information from the execution procedure information according to the instruction of the execution procedure information and the specific information. In this example, standard tree structure processing using XQuery is performed.
The extraction result storage unit 24 stores and holds the extraction result by the extraction unit 23 in association with the specific information used for the extraction.

The constraint storage unit 17 stores and holds constraint content information related to the execution of some of the processes that constitute the business process execution procedure. In this example, the constraint content information is described according to “W3C XML Schema”.
In this example, the constraint information according to the present invention is configured by associating the specific information and the constraint content information with a logical expression described later.
The verification unit 18 performs a partial verification process for verifying whether or not the execution procedure information matches the constraint information in accordance with the instructions of the execution procedure information and the constraint information. In this example, verification is performed using a schema fragment.

The logical expression storage unit 19 stores and holds logical expressions (integrated information) that collectively form verification results based on individual constraint information and form the verification results as a whole. The logical expression of this example is configured by combining operands that are pairs of specific information and constraint content information (constraint information) with three operators, AND, OR, and NOT.
In response to the instruction of the logical expression, the logical expression calculation unit 20 performs integrated verification processing that integrates the results of the partial verification processing by the verification unit 18 according to the logical expression.

  The verification result storage unit 21 stores and holds the result of the partial verification process using individual constraint information by the verification unit 18 and the result of the integrated verification process by the logical expression calculation unit 20. The result of the partial verification process is stored in association with the constraint information used for the verification, and the result of the integrated verification process is stored in association with the logical expression used for the verification.

Execution procedure information verification processing by the execution procedure verification device RS of this example will be described with reference to the processing flow shown in FIG.
In this example, the input / output unit 13 displays a list of execution procedure information in the execution procedure storage unit 14 and a list of logical expressions in the logical expression storage unit 19 for specifying and verifying execution procedure information to be verified. The specification of the logical expression to be used is received from the user.

The verification process starts when the input / output unit 13 receives the specification of the execution procedure information to be verified and the logical expression used for verification from the user (step S21).
First, the verification processing control unit 16 specifies constraint information (a combination of specific information and constraint content information) included as an operand in the specified logical expression, and specifies the specified execution procedure information and the specified constraint information. The extraction unit 23 is instructed to perform extraction processing using the specific information according to. The extraction unit 23 extracts a corresponding part in the instructed execution procedure information based on the instructed specific information, and associates the partial structure as the extraction result with the instructed execution procedure information and the specific information. The extracted result is stored in the extraction result storage unit 24 (step S22).
Next, the verification processing control unit 16 instructs the verification unit 18 to perform verification processing using the specified execution procedure information and the specified constraint information. The verification unit 18 identifies the partial structure associated with the instructed execution procedure information and the specific information related to the instructed constraint information from the extraction result storage unit 24, and sets the partial structure to the instructed constraint information. It is verified whether or not it conforms to the constraint content information, and the verification result is stored in the verification result storage unit 21 in association with the instructed execution procedure information and the constraint information (step S23).
When the partial verification processing using all the constraint information is completed, the verification processing control unit 16 instructs the logical expression calculation unit 20 to perform integrated verification processing using the specified logical expression. The logical expression calculation unit 20 specifies constraint information included as an operand in the specified logical expression, and displays the verification result in which the specified execution procedure information and the specified constraint information are associated with each other. And the integrated result is output by the input / output unit 13 as a result of the entire verification process and presented to the user (step S24).

Hereinafter, the flow of verification processing according to this example will be described in detail by taking a business process of a simple loan authentication web service described in the BPEL4WS specification as an example.
The loan authentication web service accepts a loan application from a customer and returns whether or not to approve it. Specifically, if there is an application for a large loan ($ 10,000 in this example), the approval is requested from the atomic service “approver” provided by the financial institution, and the result is returned to the customer. If the price is not high, the atomic service “assessor” makes a risk judgment, and if the risk is judged to be low, the result of approval is returned to the customer. If it is determined that the risk is high, request approval from “approver” and return the result to the customer.

  Here, a case is considered where a new business rule is defined that the judgment of “expensive loan” is relaxed to $ 20,000 for a BPEL document in which the execution procedure of this business process is described. At this time, (a) the condition judgment is different, so the new business rule is not satisfied for the composite service being provided whose condition judgment is a value of less than $ 20,000 as “high loan”. (B) From the new business rule There are two ideas that there is no problem because the loan decision is made on the safe side of a low amount. Here, a case where the idea of (b) is followed will be described as an example.

The partial structure to be verified is a guarded link on the condition of “amount (loan amount)”, and the content to be verified is that “the loan judgment is made under $ 20,000”.
A conditional expression (specific information) for extracting a guarded link that uses “amount” for conditional branching can be described as an XQuery query expression as shown in FIG. 6A, and the description content is stored in the specific information storage unit 22. It is remembered. Then, the partial structure shown in FIG. 5B specified by the specific information is extracted by the extraction unit 23 and stored in the extraction result storage unit 24.

  In addition, a schema fragment (constraint content information) indicating a constraint that “the loan judgment is made at $ 20,000 or less” can be described as shown in FIG. 7C, and the description content is held in the constraint storage unit 17. is doing. Then, the verification unit 18 verifies whether the partial structure extracted and stored in the extraction result storage unit 24 conforms to the constraint related to the constraint content information. The regular expression appearing in the “pattern” element (line 18) in the frgValue type defined in lines 16 to 20 in FIG. 10C indicates that a numerical value of 20000 or less is used for condition determination. .

  In this example, the verification result by the schema fragment is “true”. The logical expression storage unit 19 defines a logical expression that uses only this result, and the logical expression calculation unit 20 determines that the result of the entire verification is “true (business process conforms to constraints)”. Is done.

As another example, let us consider a case where a new business rule is established that a loan must pass “approver”. In this case, there should be a process transition to “approver” and no process transition that does not pass through “approver”.
Therefore, a sequence of “partnerLink” elements representing process transitions is extracted as a partial structure to be verified. The content to be verified is that one or more “approver” exists in the extracted sequence.

  For extraction of the verification target, when the “linkName” attribute value of the “source” element matches the “linkName” attribute value of the “target” element, the parent element of the “source” element (eg, “receive” element) FIG. 7A shows a “partnerLink” sequence representing a process transition from the “partnerLink” attribute value of the “target” element and the “partnerLink” attribute value of the parent element (eg, “invoke” element) of the “target” element. Partial structure can be extracted.

The content to be verified is to check that one or more “approver” exists in the extracted sequence, but as the schema fragment (constraint content information), the one expressing that “approver” does not exist is used. .
This is because it is difficult to describe that one or more “approver” can exist at an indefinite position in a sequence as a content model that can be expressed by “W3C XML Schema”. In contrast, in this example, the “partnerLinks” element describes that the “name” attribute value of the “partnerLink” element is “customer”, “approver”, or “assessor”. The fact that only “partnerLink” other than “approver” exists can be easily described as shown in FIG.

  When the three “bpel-fragment” elements in FIG. 7A are verified using this schema fragment, the first (1st to 5th lines) is “true”, the second (6th to 11th lines) and 3 (The 12th to 16th lines) is “false”. The logical expression storage unit 19 defines a logical expression that takes the logical product (AND) of negation (NOT) of each verification result, and “false” AND “true” AND “true” = “false”. The result of the entire verification is determined to be “false” (the business process does not conform to the constraints).

A third embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The execution procedure verification device RS of FIG. 9 is obtained by adding an additional update monitoring unit 25 to the execution procedure verification device RS of the second embodiment shown in FIG.
The additional update monitoring unit 25 monitors the data held in the specific information storage unit 22, the constraint storage unit 17, and the logical expression storage unit 19, and to the verification processing control unit 17 when the addition or change of data is detected. Notice.
Upon receiving the notification from the additional update monitoring unit 25, the verification process control unit 17 automatically executes a verification process related to addition or change of data.
The other functional units are the same as those in the execution procedure verification device RS of the second embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

The automatic execution of execution procedure information verification processing by the execution procedure verification device RS of this example will be described with reference to the processing flow shown in FIG.
In this example, the additional update monitoring unit 25 periodically refers to the logical formula storage unit 19, the constraint storage unit 17, and the specific information storage unit 22 to detect whether a logical formula is added or changed (step S <b> 31). It is determined whether or not the constraint content information is added or changed (step S33), and whether or not the specific information is added or changed is determined (step S35).

When the additional update monitoring unit 25 detects the addition or change of the logical expression in step S31, the addition update monitoring unit 25 notifies the verification process control unit 17 of the addition or change of the logical expression, and the verification process control unit 17 includes all the execution procedure information. On the other hand, the verification process using the logical expression is executed by controlling the extraction unit 23, the verification unit 18, and the logical expression calculation unit 20 (step S32).
Further, when detecting the addition or change of the constraint content information in step S33, the additional update monitoring unit 25 notifies the verification process control unit 17 of the addition or change of the constraint content information, and the verification process control unit 17 For the execution procedure information, a verification process using a logical expression including the constraint information related to the constraint content information in the operand is executed by controlling the extraction unit 23, the verification unit 18, and the logical expression calculation unit 20 (step S34). ).
Further, when the addition update monitoring unit 25 detects the addition or change of the specific information in step S35, the additional update monitoring unit 25 notifies the verification process control unit 17 of information indicating the specific information, and the verification process control unit 17 performs all the execution procedure information. On the other hand, the verification process using the logical expression including the constraint information related to the specific information in the operand is executed by controlling the extraction unit 23, the verification unit 18, and the logical expression calculation unit 20 (step S36).

When the additional update monitoring unit 25 detects the addition or change of the constraint content information, the verification process using the constraint information related to the constraint content information may be executed and the result may be output. .
Further, when the additional update monitoring unit 25 detects the addition or change of the specific information, a verification process using the constraint information related to the specific information may be executed and the result may be output.

A fourth embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The execution procedure verification device RS of FIG. 11 is obtained by adding a digest value calculation unit 26 to the execution procedure verification device RS of the third embodiment shown in FIG.
The digest value calculation unit 26 performs a predetermined operation on the specific information, the constraint content information, and the logical expression to calculate a representation value (digest value) that represents the content of each information.
The specific information storage unit 22 stores and holds the digest value calculated from each specific information in association with the specific information.
The constraint storage unit 17 stores and holds the digest value calculated from each constraint information in association with each constraint information.
The logical expression storage unit 19 stores and holds the digest value calculated from each logical expression in association with each logical expression.

When the data is added to the specific information storage unit 22, the constraint storage unit 17, and the logical formula storage unit 19, the additional update monitoring unit 25 calculates the digest value of the data by the digest value calculation unit 26, and adds If there is no digest value that matches all the digest values stored in the storage unit, it is detected that data has been added.
Further, when the data in the specific information storage unit 22, the constraint storage unit 17, and the logical expression storage unit 19 is changed, the additional update monitoring unit 25 calculates the digest value of the data by the digest value calculation unit 26 and changes the data. If the digest value does not match the digest value stored in association with the previous data, it is detected that the data has been changed.
The other functional units are the same as those of the execution procedure verification device RS of the third embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  The present invention sequentially calls a business process providing device (a device that actually executes an execution procedure) having a verification function as described in each of the above embodiments, and a business process cooperation device (a service that is componentized according to the execution procedure). Apparatus), business process execution procedure description device (the verification function works as a procedure description debugger), and the like.

In addition, the execution procedure verification device RS of this example is such that a computer having hardware resources such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a random access memory (RAM), and a central processing unit (CPU) stores and holds the program according to the present invention. Each functional unit is configured by reading the program from the HDD or the like, developing the program on the RAM, and performing arithmetic processing by the CPU. However, these functional units may be configured by dedicated hardware.
Further, the execution procedure verification device RS of the present example is configured such that each function unit is distributed among a plurality of computers connected by the private network 10, but each function is configured as a single computer. Also good.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the travel reservation system which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a description of the execution procedure information which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the travel reservation availability inquiry which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the verification process which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the execution procedure verification apparatus which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the verification process which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the verification process which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the verification process which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the execution procedure verification apparatus which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the verification process which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the execution procedure verification apparatus which concerns on 4th Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

11: Message transmission / reception unit,
12: Message storage unit
13: Input / output unit,
14: execution procedure storage unit,
15: Business process execution processing unit,
16: Verification processing control unit,
17: Constraint storage unit
18: Verification section
19: logical expression storage unit,
20: logical expression calculation unit,
21: Verification result storage unit,
22: specific information storage unit,
23: Extraction unit,
24: Extraction result storage unit,
25: Additional update monitoring unit,
26: Digest value calculator

Claims (12)

A first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure of a plurality of processes to be executed to perform business;
Second holding means for holding constraint information in which information indicating a part of processing in the execution procedure information is associated with information indicating constraints related to the execution of the processing;
Verification means for performing partial verification processing for verifying whether or not the execution procedure information held in the first holding means matches the constraint information held in the second holding means;
Output means for outputting a result of the partial verification process;
An execution procedure verification device comprising: The execution procedure verification device further includes an instruction receiving unit that receives specification of execution procedure information and constraint information from a user,
The execution procedure verification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the verification unit performs a partial verification process based on the specified constraint information with respect to the specified execution procedure information. The execution procedure verification apparatus further includes constraint information monitoring means for detecting addition of constraint information to the second holding means or change of constraint information held in the second holding means,
In response to detecting the addition of the constraint information to the second holding unit or the change of the constraint information held in the second holding unit by the verification unit, the verification unit detects the first information The execution procedure verification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a partial verification process based on the constraint information is performed on the execution procedure information held in the holding unit. The execution procedure verification device further includes constraint information representation value calculation means for performing a predetermined operation on the constraint information to calculate a representation value representing the content of the constraint information,
The representation value is added to the constraint information held in the second holding means,
When the representation value added to the constraint information held in the second holding unit changes, the constraint information monitoring unit assumes that the constraint information to which the changed representation value is added has been added or changed The execution procedure verification device according to claim 3, wherein the execution procedure verification device is detected. A first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure of a plurality of processes to be executed to perform business;
Second holding means for holding constraint information in which information indicating a part of processing in the execution procedure information is associated with information indicating constraints related to the execution of the processing;
A third holding means for holding integrated information for integrating the respective verification results by a plurality of constraint information;
Each of the execution procedure information held in the first holding means is verified whether or not it matches a plurality of pieces of constraint information related to the integrated information held in the third holding means, and each verification result is determined as the integrated information. Integrated verification means for performing integrated verification processing based on
Output means for outputting the result of the integrated verification process;
An execution procedure verification device comprising: The execution procedure verification device further includes an instruction receiving unit that receives specification of execution procedure information and integrated information from a user,
The execution procedure verification apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the verification unit performs an integrated verification process based on the specified integrated information with respect to the specified execution procedure information. The execution procedure verification apparatus further includes constraint information monitoring means for detecting addition of constraint information to the second holding means or change of constraint information held in the second holding means,
The verification unit is configured to detect the first holding in response to the addition of the constraint information to the second holding unit or the change of the constraint information held in the second holding unit detected by the constraint monitoring unit. 6. The execution procedure verification apparatus according to claim 5, wherein an integration verification process based on the integration information related to the constraint information is performed on the execution procedure information held by the means. The execution procedure verification device further includes constraint information representation value calculation means for performing a predetermined operation on the constraint information to calculate a representation value representing the content of the constraint information,
The representation value is added to the constraint information held in the second holding means,
When the representation value added to the constraint information held in the second holding unit changes, the constraint information monitoring unit assumes that the constraint information to which the changed representation value is added has been added or changed The execution procedure verification device according to claim 7, wherein the execution procedure verification device is detected. The execution procedure verification apparatus further includes integrated information monitoring means for detecting addition of integrated information to the third holding means or change of integrated information held in the third holding means,
In response to detecting the addition of integrated information to the third holding means or the change of the integrated information held in the third holding means by the integrated information monitoring means, the verification means 6. The execution procedure verification apparatus according to claim 5, wherein an integration verification process based on the integration information is performed on the execution procedure information held in the holding unit. The execution procedure verification device further includes integrated information representation value calculation means for performing a predetermined operation on the integration information and calculating a representation value representing the content of the integration information,
The representation value is added to the integrated information held in the third holding means,
When the representation value added to the integration information held in the third holding unit is changed, the integration information monitoring unit is assumed that the integration information to which the changed representation value is added is added or changed. The execution procedure verification device according to claim 9, wherein the execution procedure verification device is detected. Computer
A first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure of a plurality of processes to be executed in order to perform business;
Second holding means for holding constraint information in which information indicating a part of processing in the execution procedure information is associated with information indicating constraints related to execution of the processing;
Verification means for performing partial verification processing for verifying whether or not the execution procedure information held in the first holding means is compatible with the constraint information held in the second holding means;
Output means for outputting a result of the partial verification process;
Execution procedure verification program to function as Computer
A first holding means for holding execution procedure information indicating an execution procedure of a plurality of processes to be executed in order to perform business;
Second holding means for holding constraint information in which information indicating a part of processing in the execution procedure information is associated with information indicating constraints related to execution of the processing;
A third holding means for holding integrated information for integrating the respective verification results by a plurality of constraint information;
Each of the execution procedure information held in the first holding means is verified whether or not it matches a plurality of pieces of constraint information related to the integrated information held in the third holding means, and each verification result is determined as the integrated information. Integrated verification means for performing integrated verification processing based on
Output means for outputting the result of the integrated verification process;
Execution procedure verification program to function as

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