System for establishing concurrent high level and low level processes in a diagram window through process explosion and implosion subsystems

摘要

A computer system for creating and manipulating subprocesses in a dynamic model of information management systems of organizations. The system enables a user to "explode" a process from a graphical representation, or diagram, into its corresponding subprocesses. By performing this process explosion, high-level processes and primitive processes are created. A high-level process is one which has one or more corresponding subprocesses, whereas a primitive process is one which has no corresponding subprocesses. A diagram may then be generated for each primitive process. In addition, the resulting exploded process may simultaneously be displayed with the displayed process from which it is derived. In a similar fashion, subprocesses may be "hidden" within a process, creating high-level processes from groups of primitive processes.