JP2014174615A - Maintenance work support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique allowing automated execution of even maintenance work having a complicated workflow.SOLUTION: A maintenance work support device 100 includes an application information reception unit 114, a workflow information holding unit 136, a workflow specification unit 122, a display control unit 112, and an execution control unit 124. The application information reception unit 114 receives application information for making an application for execution of maintenance work. The workflow information holding unit 136 holds a plurality of workflows of maintenance work. The workflow specification unit 122 refers to a plurality of tasks included in the application information to specify a workflow to be executed among the plurality of workflows. On the condition that a task in a preceding stage has been executed, the display control unit 112 displays, on an approval terminal 204, an application screen for determining whether a task in a succeeding stage can be executed or not. The execution control unit 124 executes the task in the succeeding stage on the condition that approval is obtained from an approver.

Description

  The present invention relates to a maintenance work support device.

  Business information systems that support the operation of companies and public facilities, so-called enterprise systems, are now the foundation of organizations of various sizes. The business information system supports complicated organization management by outputting higher value-added information after totaling, accumulating, analyzing and processing data obtained from node terminals and databases.

  Such a business information system requires various maintenance operations such as operation monitoring, failure handling, function expansion and function change even after operation. Normally, a client company that introduces a business information system entrusts this maintenance work to an external management company.

JP 2004-213475 A

  In order to reduce human error in maintenance work, a technique for automatically executing work approved for execution has been proposed. This technique can automate the execution of a single task. However, some maintenance work includes a plurality of works, and each work requires the approval of an approver. I want to automate this kind of work.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a technique capable of automating the execution of a work even in a maintenance work with a more complicated work flow.

  In order to solve the above problems, a maintenance work support device according to an aspect of the present invention is a maintenance work support device that supports maintenance work of a device to be managed, and applies for the execution of maintenance work including a plurality of work. The application information receiving unit that receives the application information and the work flow of the maintenance work so that one or more work corresponding to the subsequent stage is executed on condition that one or more work corresponding to the previous stage is executed A workflow holding unit that holds a plurality of workflows for which dependency relations are defined, and a workflow for identifying which of the plurality of workflows should be executed with reference to a plurality of tasks included in the application information On the condition that the specific part and the work corresponding to the previous part of the plurality of work included in the specified work flow have been executed, That includes a transmitter configured to approver approval terminal that determines the possibility of execution of tasks and transmits the application information, and a execution control unit for executing a subsequent task on condition that was approved by the approver.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a representation of the present invention converted between an apparatus, a method, a system, a program, a recording medium storing the program, and the like are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, execution of work can be automated even in maintenance work with a more complicated work flow.

It is a hardware block diagram which shows the relationship between the maintenance operation | work assistance apparatus of embodiment and various business information systems. It is a sequence diagram which shows the process about application, approval, and execution of a maintenance work. It is a figure which shows the application screen displayed on the application terminal of FIG. It is a figure which shows the approval screen displayed on the approval terminal of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the maintenance work assistance apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows the data structure of application information. It is a figure which shows the data structure of work flow information. It is a figure which shows the correspondence of a work flow and the maintenance work which should be implemented according to the work flow.

  The maintenance work support apparatus according to the embodiment includes a plurality of work flows in which dependency relations of each work are determined so that one or more work corresponding to the subsequent stage is executed on condition that one or more work corresponding to the previous stage is executed. Hold. The maintenance work support device controls the execution of the maintenance work using a work flow specified from the plurality of work flows. Specifically, the maintenance work support device requests the approver to approve whether or not the work corresponding to the latter stage can be executed on the condition that the work corresponding to the former stage among the plurality of works included in the identified workflow is executed, The subsequent work is executed on the condition that it is approved. Thereby, even if the maintenance work includes a plurality of works and the approval of the approver is required for each work, the maintenance work can be automated.

  FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram showing the relationship between the maintenance work support apparatus 100 and various business information systems. An operational environment 300 illustrated in FIG. 1 represents a business environment of a certain company A. A person or device belonging to the operation environment 300 is hereinafter referred to as “operation side”. The maintenance execution environment 200 indicates a business environment of a certain company B. In the following, a person or device belonging to the maintenance execution environment 200 is referred to as a “development side”. In company A, various business information systems are operated, and the maintenance work is entrusted to company B. That is, regarding the maintenance work, company A is the client side and company B is the service side. In the following, the company A is also referred to as “consignment company” and the company B is also referred to as “consignment company”. Various companies such as securities firms, banks, government offices, and transportation can be entrusted companies. On the other hand, the trustee company is a so-called system integrator.

  The operating environment 300 of the company A includes three types of business information systems: a financial information system 310, a customer information system 312, and an inventory management system 314. The financial information system 310 is a system for managing the financial information of the company A. The customer information system 312 is a system for managing customer information of the company A. The inventory management system 314 is a system that manages the inventory status of the products of the company A.

The maintenance execution environment 200 includes a first application terminal 202a, a second application terminal 202b,..., A third application terminal 202c, which are collectively referred to as an application terminal 202, and one or more approval terminals 204. The application terminal 202 and the approval terminal 204 are general PC (Personal Computer) terminals equipped with a web browser. The approval terminal 204 does not necessarily belong to the maintenance execution environment 200, and may be a portable terminal such as a notebook PC.
Each business information system is connected to the Internet 330 via the maintenance work support apparatus 100. The application terminal 202 and the approval terminal 204 are connected to the maintenance work support device 100 via the Internet 330.

  Various business systems in the operational environment 300 are appropriately subjected to maintenance work even after operation. The maintenance work support device 100 automatically executes this maintenance work based on an application from the application terminal 202. The user who makes this application is hereinafter simply referred to as “applicant”. The maintenance work includes a maintenance work including only one work and a maintenance work including a plurality of work. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the maintenance work includes a plurality of works, and the plurality of works have a dependency relationship. That is, hereinafter, a case will be described in which the maintenance work support apparatus 100 automatically executes a maintenance work including a plurality of dependent work.

  The applicant operates the application terminal 202 to apply for maintenance work to the maintenance work support apparatus 100. The maintenance work support device 100 identifies a work flow to be used when executing a plurality of works included in the requested maintenance work, and executes each work according to the work flow. More specifically, the maintenance work support device 100 executes each work on the condition that the approval by the approver using the approval terminal 204 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “approver”) is made.

  FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing processing steps for application, approval and execution of maintenance work. The user of the application terminal 202, that is, the applicant, first accesses the maintenance work support apparatus 100 for a maintenance work application (S10). The maintenance work support apparatus 100 transmits HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) data for the application screen 250 (S12). The user interface of the application screen 250 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  An application screen 250 is displayed on the application terminal 202 (S14). When the user inputs data indicating application contents on the application screen 250 (S16), the input data is transmitted to the maintenance work support apparatus 100 as application information (S18). The maintenance work support apparatus 100 holds this application information (S20). The data structure of the application information will be described later with reference to FIG. The maintenance work support apparatus 100 identifies the work flow used for the applied maintenance work (S22). The maintenance work support apparatus 100 transmits an e-mail to the approval terminal 204 and requests approval for execution of each work (S24).

  The approver of the approval terminal 204 accesses the maintenance work support apparatus 100 to determine whether approval is possible (S26). The maintenance work support apparatus 100 transmits the HTML data of the approval screen 270 (S28). The user interface of the approval screen 270 will be described later with reference to FIG. An approval screen 270 is displayed on the approval terminal 204 (S30). When the user, that is, the approver inputs approval / disapproval on the approval screen 270 (S32), approval information indicating approval / disapproval is transmitted to the maintenance work support apparatus 100 (S34). The maintenance work support apparatus 100 performs work according to the approval / disapproval (S36). If the work flow is finished (Y in S38), the process is finished. If the work flow has not been completed (N in S38), the process returns to S24 to request approval for execution of the next work.

  Instead of actively requesting approval as in S24, a list of tasks awaiting approval may be displayed when each approver accesses the maintenance work support apparatus 100. The approver may select an operation to be approved from the list and display the approval screen 270.

  FIG. 3 shows an application screen 250 displayed on the application terminal 202. When the maintenance work support apparatus 100 is accessed from the application terminal 202 for a maintenance work application, an application screen 250 shown in FIG. The application screen 250 is displayed as a web page on the application terminal 202. In the applicant name column 252, the applicant name is input in a selection format. For example, when the user “Nobuyuki Aino” of the application terminal 202 logs in to the maintenance work support apparatus 100, “Nobuyuki Aino” is displayed in the applicant name column 252.

In the work content area 254, each work included in the maintenance work is input in a selection format. In the figure, “Windows (registered trademark) machine creation and directory creation” and “mail notification” are selected. When “Create Windows (registered trademark) machine and create directory” is selected, input fields for “Host name” and “Directory name” are displayed. Here, “FILESERVER01” and “C: \ file_dir” are entered respectively. ing. When “Email notification” is selected, an input field of “notification destination” is displayed, and “kaihatsu@abc.co.jp” is input here. In the contact area 256, items to be communicated to the approver are input in a free description format.
The worker clicks the application button 258 after inputting data in each item shown on the application screen 250. The input data is transmitted to the maintenance work support apparatus 100 as application information.

  FIG. 4 shows an approval screen 270 displayed on the approval terminal 204. When accessing the maintenance work support apparatus 100 from the approval terminal 204 to determine whether approval is possible, an approval screen 270 shown in FIG. The approval screen 270 is displayed on the approval terminal 204 as a web page. The application information area 272 shows a part of the application contents input on the application screen 250, in other words, a part of the application information. The display content of the communication column 278 corresponds to the content input in the contact area 256 of the application screen 250.

  Further, in the related information area 274, related information of “FILESERVER01” specified as a part of the application information is displayed. The maintenance work support device 100 holds such various related information. In this case, “FILESERVER01” is associated with information such as “installed CPU”, “average usage rate of CPU of the device during a predetermined period”, and “size of installed memory”. In the case of the figure, the maintenance work support device 100 has the “installed CPU”, “the average usage rate of the CPU of the device in a predetermined period”, “ It is set to provide the approver with related information “size”.

  In the approver name area 276, an approver is input. In the communication column 278, communication items for the worker are input. The approval button 280 is an approval button, and the rejection button 282 is a rejection button. When either the approval button 280 or the rejection button 282 is clicked, the description contents of the approver name area 276 and the communication column 278 and approval information indicating approval / disapproval are transmitted to the maintenance work support apparatus 100 (S34 in FIG. 2). ). The contents of the communication column 278 may be transmitted to the application terminal 202 by e-mail.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the maintenance work support apparatus 100. Each block shown here can be realized in hardware by an element such as a CPU of a computer or a mechanical device, and in software it is realized by a computer program or the like. Draw functional blocks. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software.

  The maintenance work support apparatus 100 includes a communication processing unit 110, a data processing unit 120, and a data holding unit 130. The communication processing unit 110 takes charge of an interface with the application terminal 202 and the approval terminal 204. The communication processing unit 110 is also in charge of communication processing with each business information system. The data processing unit 120 executes various data processing based on the data acquired by the communication processing unit 110 and the data stored in the data storage unit 130. The data processing unit 120 also serves as an interface between the communication processing unit 110 and the data holding unit 130. The data processing unit 120 holds various setting data prepared in advance and data received from the communication processing unit 110 and the data processing unit 120.

  The communication processing unit 110 includes a display control unit 112, an application information receiving unit 114, a notification unit 116, and an approval information receiving unit 118. The display control unit 112 displays the application screen 250 on the display of the application terminal 202 and the approval screen 270 on the display of the approval terminal 204. The application information receiving unit 114 receives application information input to the application screen 250 from the application terminal 202 (S18 in FIG. 2). Then, the application information receiving unit 114 assigns “application ID” to the application information and stores it in the application information holding unit 132 (described later). The notification unit 116 transmits an e-mail to the approval terminal 204 to notify the existence of work waiting for approval. In other words, the notification unit 116 transmits an e-mail to the approval terminal 204 and requests approval for execution of the work. The approval information receiving unit 118 receives the approval information input to the approval screen 270 from the approval terminal 204 (S34 in FIG. 2).

  The data holding unit 130 includes an application information holding unit 132, a related information holding unit 134, a workflow information holding unit 136, and a workflow correspondence holding unit 138. The data holding unit 130 is mainly configured by an arbitrary recording medium such as a memory or a hard disk. The data holding unit 130 itself may be constructed as an external database physically separated from the maintenance work support apparatus 100.

The application information holding unit 132 holds application information for maintenance work. FIG. 6 shows the data structure of application information held in the application information holding unit 132. The application ID column 210 indicates an ID that uniquely identifies an application (hereinafter referred to as “application ID”). The work content column 212 shows the work content of a plurality of work included in the application. The value set in the work content column 212 corresponds to the content input in the work content area 254 of the application screen 250 in FIG. The work flow ID 214 indicates an ID for uniquely identifying a work flow to be used (hereinafter referred to as “work flow ID”). The step column 216 indicates in which stage of the work flow.
Returning to FIG. 5, the related information holding unit 134 holds related information in association with various data that may be included in the application information. The related information is as described in relation to FIG.

  The work flow information holding unit 136 holds work flow information in which a dependency relationship between work is defined. FIG. 7 shows a data structure of work flow information. The work flow ID column 220 shows a work flow ID. The step column 222 shows each step constituting the work flow. The preceding status column 224 indicates the preceding step of each step. The action column 226 shows the action contents in each step. The person in charge column 228 indicates the person in charge who executes the action. For example, in the work flow with the work flow ID “F0001” (hereinafter referred to as “work flow (F0001)”), “environment manager 1” determines whether or not “work 1” can be approved. The maintenance work support apparatus 100 performs an action in which the person-in-charge column 228 has “automatic work”. The execution timing column 230 indicates the timing for executing each action. Here, “relative date and time” indicates that the work is executed after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the work is approved, and “absolute date and time” indicates that the work is executed at a predetermined time after the work is approved. For example, “Work 1” in the workflow (F0001) is executed 30 minutes after being approved, and “Work 2” is executed at 1 am after the approval. The command column 232 indicates commands that are automatically executed by the communication processing unit 110. Therefore, the work flow information holding unit 136 also functions as a correspondence holding unit that holds a correspondence between a work and a command corresponding to the work.

  The work flow correspondence holding unit 138 holds the correspondence between the work flow and the maintenance work to be performed according to the work flow. FIG. 8 shows the correspondence. The work flow ID column 240 shows a work flow ID. The work column 242 indicates work included in the maintenance work. For example, when the maintenance work includes “Windows (registered trademark) machine creation and directory creation” and “mail transmission”, the maintenance work is performed according to the work flow (F0001). Further, for example, when the maintenance operation includes “Windows (registered trademark) machine creation and directory creation”, “Linux machine creation”, “Windows (registered trademark) patch application”, and “e-mail transmission”, the work flow (F0002) is included. Therefore, maintenance work is performed.

  The data processing unit 120 includes a work flow specifying unit 122 and an execution control unit 124. The work flow specifying unit 122 specifies a work flow with reference to a plurality of work included in the application information and the work flow correspondence holding unit 138. The workflow identifying unit 122 reflects the identified workflow ID in the application information.

  The execution control unit 124 controls the execution of the maintenance work according to the work flow. For example, in the case of the maintenance work with the application ID “A0001”, the execution control unit 124 controls the execution of the maintenance work according to the work flow (F0001). The execution control unit 124 first executes “Work 1”, which is the first action having no preceding status. Specifically, the execution control unit 124 requests approval of “work 1” from the “environment manager 1” via the notification unit 116. When the approval is made, the execution control unit 124 refers to the work flow information, specifies the command “BuildWindowsAndMakeDirectory.exe host name directory name” corresponding to “work 1”, and executes it 30 minutes after the approval. Similarly, when “Work 2” is approved, the execution control unit 124 identifies the command “SendMail.exe notification destination” corresponding to “Work 2” and executes it at 1 am after the approval.

  For example, in the case of the maintenance work with the application ID “A0002”, the execution control unit 124 controls the execution of the maintenance work according to the work flow (F0002). The execution control unit 124 first executes “work 1” and “work 2”, which are the top actions having no preceding status. Specifically, the execution control unit 124 sends an approval request for “Work 1” to “Environment Manager 1” and an approval request for “Work 2” to “Environment Manager 2” via the notification unit 116. When the approval of “work 1” is made, the execution control unit 124 executes “work 1”. Similarly, when “Work 2” is approved, the execution control unit 124 executes “Work 2”. “Work 1” and “Work 2” may be executed in parallel in time. When “Work 1” is completed, the execution control unit 124 requests approval of “Work 3”, and when approval is given, executes “Work 3”. If “Work 2” is still being executed, “Work 2” and “Work 3” may be executed in parallel in time. When “Work 2” and “Work 3” are completed, the execution control unit 124 requests approval of “Work 4”. After the approval, the execution control unit 124 executes “operation 4”.

  If an error occurs during execution, the execution control unit 124 interrupts the subsequent processing and notifies the applicant to that effect. Note that the execution control unit 124 may execute the rollback to the state immediately before the error occurs.

The maintenance work support apparatus 100 has been described based on the embodiments.
According to the maintenance work support apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, the maintenance work can be automated even when the maintenance work includes a plurality of work and the approval of the approver is required for each work. Thereby, the load of the user who performs the maintenance work is reduced. Also, automation can reduce the risk of operational errors. In addition, according to the maintenance work support device 100 according to the present embodiment, the approved work can be executed after a predetermined time has passed since the approval, or can be executed at a predetermined time after the approval. Can be set.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

  Any combination of the above-described embodiments and modifications is also useful as an embodiment of the present invention. The new embodiment generated by the combination has the effects of the combined embodiment and the modified examples. In addition, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements described in the claims are realized by the individual constituent elements shown in the embodiments and the modified examples or by their linkage. .

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Maintenance work support apparatus, 110 Communication processing part, 112 Display control part, 114 Application information receiving part, 116 Notification part, 118 Approval information receiving part, 120 Data processing part, 122 Work flow specification part, 124 Execution control part, 130 Data Holding unit, 132 Application information holding unit, 134 Related information holding unit, 136 Work flow information holding unit, 200 Maintenance execution environment, 202 Application terminal, 204 Approval terminal, 300 Operating environment

Claims (5)

A maintenance work support device that supports maintenance work of a device to be managed,
An application information receiving unit that receives application information for applying to perform maintenance work including a plurality of operations;
A maintenance work flow, in which a plurality of work flows, each of which is dependent on each other, are stored so that at least one work corresponding to the subsequent stage is executed on condition that one or more work corresponding to the previous stage is executed. A work flow holding unit;
A workflow identification unit that identifies a workflow to be executed among a plurality of workflows with reference to a plurality of tasks included in the application information;
A transmission unit that transmits application information to an approval terminal of an approver that determines whether or not the work corresponding to the subsequent stage can be executed on condition that the work corresponding to the previous stage among the plurality of works included in the identified workflow is executed; ,
An execution control unit that executes subsequent work on the condition that it is approved by the approver;
A maintenance work support device comprising:   The maintenance operation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the execution control unit executes a subsequent work after a predetermined time has elapsed since the execution of the work is approved.   The maintenance operation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the execution control unit executes a subsequent work at a predetermined time after the execution of the work is approved.   In addition to the subsequent work approved by the approver, the execution control unit is a work for which there is no work corresponding to the previous stage and the execution is approved, or a work corresponding to the previous stage has been executed. The maintenance work support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when there is another work whose execution is approved, the work is executed in parallel in time. It further includes a correspondence holding unit that holds a correspondence between a work and a control command according to the work,
4. The execution control unit according to claim 1, wherein the execution control unit specifies a control command corresponding to the subsequent work by referring to the correspondence relationship, and executes the subsequent work by transmitting the control command. The maintenance work support device according to crab.

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