Automating resource management for distributed business processes

摘要

The present invention is a method and computer product for automating resource management. One embodiment is a method targeted at solving an optimization problem termed Activity Resource Assignment (ARA). ARA formalizes the selection of optimal resources for activities of a given process. The selection is based on an objective function expressed as an algebraic composition of relationships among the activities. ARA gives a new solution method that finds an optimal solution, in polynomial time, for many seemingly intractable instances. The exponent of the polynomial in the algorithm is related to the tree-width of a relationship graph that can be constructed for any given process specification. ARA is combined with a method targeted to solving the Distributed Service Commit (DSC) problem, which addresses the need to coordinate the resources chosen by an optimization to carry out the business process. DSC is targeted to the issue of achieving an atomic distributed agreement of resources.