Patent Publication Number: US-2016224918-A1

Title: Business influenced part extraction method and business influenced part extraction device based on business variation

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to a business process design technique in enterprise information system development, and particularly relates to a method and a system capable of extracting other business processes that are influenced when a business designer revises a business process. 
     BACKGROUND ART 
     A technique of expressing business requirements as business processes and implementing system design/development based on such business processes for attaining higher quality and efficiency in enterprise information system development is being adopted. A business process is a series of task groups that is structured for achieving a business purpose (creation, referral, update, or deletion of information to be utilized in a certain type of business), and expresses who will perform the task (business operation) in what order and by using which information. 
     Meanwhile, in enterprise information system development, business requirements are frequently changed due to changes in the business environment and modifications in the business operation. In order to prevent the reworking of subsequent processes in the course of implementing the system design/development based on business processes, it is important to efficiently and accurately revise the business process by following the changes in the business requirements, and maintain the accuracy of the business processes. Nevertheless, generally speaking, the revision of one business process will influence the other business processes. In particular, when dealing with large-scale and complicated business such as financial services, the business processes also become large-scale and complicated, and the other business processes are influenced considerably when one business process is revised. Thus, desired is a technique of accurately extracting the other business processes that may need to be revised (hereinafter referred to as the “influenced business processes”) when one business process is revised. 
     PTL 1 discloses a technique of searching for similar business processes with a certain business process as the search condition, and presenting business processes in ascending order from the most similar business process. Similarity is calculated based on the degree of coincidence of the task name, the actor name, and the task order configuring that business process. 
     Moreover, PTL 2 discloses a technique of searching for business processes having the same purpose, calculating the similarity with the business process between node (task and branch) groups, and displaying the search result according to the similarity. In searching for business processes having the same purpose, a business process is determined to have the “same purpose” based on any one of the following determination conditions; namely, “(1) same business process ID”, “(2) similarity of the business process name”, and “(3) search based on a correspondence table of the business processes having the same purpose defined in advance”. 
     CITATION LIST 
     Patent Literature 
     [PTL 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-243268 
     [PTL 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-176288 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     Technical Problem 
     With the technique of PTL 1, by using the revised business process as the search condition, business processes having a similar task, actor, and task order can be extracted as the influenced business processes. Nevertheless, there is a problem in that PTL 1 is unable to extract the variations in the business processes that have the same business purpose, but have a different task, actor, and task order. 
     In order to specifically illustrate the foregoing problem, considered is an example of the two business processes of “create notification” and “create medical certificate” in the new contract business of life insurance. The former “create notification” is the business process of a person insured creating a notification describing the health information of such person insured, which will be used as information for screening the underwriting risk of life insurance. Meanwhile, “create medical certificate” is the business process of a physician creating a medical certificate describing the diagnosis information of the person insured, which will be used as information for screening the underwriting risk of life insurance in cases where a huge sum is insured. When comparing the two business processes, while the business purpose of creating information for screening the underwriting risk of life insurance is the same, since the sets of business information; namely, “information of notification” and “information of medical certificate”, used in the respective business processes are different, the task and task order of processing the business information will differ in the two business processes. Needless to say, the actors are also different with one being the person insured and the other being the physician. In this kind of case, even if similar business processes are searched with the technique of PTL 1 by using the business process of “create notification” as the search condition, it will not be possible to extract the business process of “create medical certificate”. Meanwhile, since the business purpose of the two business processes is the same, it is likely that the revision of one will influence the other. 
     For example, in the business process of “create notification”, let it be assumed that a new business requirement of delivering a copy of the notification to the person insured has been added in order to avoid troubles regarding the duty of notification. In this case, it is likely that the delivery of a copy of the medical certificate will similarly be required in the business process of “create medical certificate”. 
     With the technique of PTL 2, a business process is determined to have the “same purpose” based on any one of the following determination conditions; namely, “(1) same business process ID”, “(2) similarity of the business process name”, and “(3) search based on a correspondence table of the business processes having the same purpose defined in advance”. Since an influenced business process will differ from the revision source business process, it will have a different business process ID and the business process name may not necessarily be similar. While it will be possible to extract the business process having the same purpose based on determination condition (3), since it is necessary to manually create a correspondence table in advance, much time and labor are required, and there is also the risk of creating an erroneous correspondence table. 
     Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and a system capable of extracting business variations having the same business purpose by including such business variations in the influenced business processes upon revising a business process. 
     Solution to Problem 
     In order to attain the foregoing object, the present invention extracts business variations by using the logical relation between sets of business information. This is explained in detail below. 
     Since a business purpose is the creation, referral, update or deletion of business information to be utilized in a certain business operation, when there are business variations having the same business purpose, the tasks utilizing the business information of the respective business variations will be performed alternatively (logical relation of XOR) in the utilization business. Note that, when the series of tasks utilizing the business information of the respective business variations is the same, the business information will be utilized alternatively. For example, in the example shown in  FIG. 20 , there are the business processes of “create notification” and “create medical certificate” as the business variations, but the respective business purposes are to create “notification information” and “diagnosis information” to be utilized in the subsequent business process of “medical screening”. Moreover, the utilization business of “medical screening” will be the business process in which the task will be performed by alternatively utilizing “notification information” and “diagnosis information” as shown in  FIG. 23 . Consequently, the business variations having the same business purpose can be extracted based on the XOR relation of the task or business information. 
     In order to resolve the foregoing problems, the system of the present invention for extracting influenced business processes adopts the following configuration. 
     A logical relation (AND, OR, XOR) between sets of business information used for a task in the business process is stored in advance. An input device receives a revision of the business process, extracts a difference between pre-revision business process information and post-revision business process information based on the pre-stored business process information, and stores the difference information as revision history information of the business process to be revised. A processing category as a processing type of the business information is analyzed of a pair of task and business information as constituent elements of the post-revision business process, and the information is stored in a storage device. The influenced business processes from the business process information are extracted based on an XOR relation between the sets of business information or an XOR relation of the series of tasks, and an output device displays the influenced business process information. The input device receives a selection of a business process among the influenced business processes, and the output device displays the business process information and the revision history information of the business process to be revised. Note that, while it has been described that the logical relation is stored in advance, the logical relation may also be calculated when it needs to be used. 
     Advantageous Effects of Invention 
     According to the present invention, it is possible to yield an effect of being able to more efficiently extract business processes. The other objects, configurations and effects will become apparent from the ensuing explanation of the embodiments of the present invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of the influenced business process extraction system in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing a typical hardware configuration of a computer used in the business process information management system in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the registration of the business information logical relation, registration of the business process information and influence extraction in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart showing the flow of extracting difference information of the business process in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing the flow of analyzing the processing category of the task and business information in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart showing the flow of extracting the influenced business process in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a table configuration of the task information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a table configuration of the business information information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 9  is a table configuration of the business information dictionary storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 10  is a table configuration of the department/actor list information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 11  is a table configuration of the branch information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 12  is a table configuration of the connection information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 13  is a table configuration of the processing name list information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 14  is a table configuration of the revision history information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 15  is a table configuration of the business variation information storage unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 16  is a business process editing screen example in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 17  is a business information editing screen example in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 18  is an influence extraction result screen example in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 19  is a conceptual diagram of the partial processing of the influenced business process extraction in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 20  is a conceptual diagram of the general process in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 21  is a conceptual diagram of the business process (create notification) in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 22  is a conceptual diagram of the business process (create medical certificate) in one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 23  is a conceptual diagram of the business process (medical screening) in one embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     One embodiment of the present invention is now explained. In this embodiment, explained is an influenced business process extraction system capable of extracting business variations having the same business purpose by including such business variations in the influenced business processes upon revising a business process.  FIG. 1  shows the influenced business process extraction system. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the influenced business process extraction system is configured from a business process development terminal  1  comprising a business process development unit  101  and a terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  which sends and receives business process information, and a business process information management system  2  which receives an input of a logical relation of business information, registers the edited business process, and extracts the influenced business processes. 
     In this embodiment, while examples of business processes related to insurance are described as the category of business, the present invention is not limited thereto, and may also be applied to cases of designing business processes in enterprise information system development irrespective of the category of business. 
     A business process is foremost explained. There are numerous notation methods of a business process, and, for instance, there is BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) formulated by the international standards body OMG. In this embodiment, while the explanation will be provided by adopting BPMN as the notation method, the present invention may be applied without limitation to BPMN so as long as business information, I/O relation of business information, and logical relation between sets of business information are included in the business process information. 
     A business process is now explained in detail with reference to  FIG. 20  to  FIG. 23 .  FIG. 20  is a diagram which expresses the general process of a new contract business based on BPMN. The constituent elements of the general process include a business process, business information, I/O relation of business information, branch and branch condition, sequence flow, start event, and end event. Moreover, the business process may also adopt a hierarchy structure. For example, details of “create notification” in  FIG. 20  are expressed as the business process of  FIG. 21 . In the business process of “create notification” in  FIG. 21 , task, pool, and lane are described in addition to the constituent elements of the general process.  FIG. 22  and  FIG. 23  are each a detailed diagram of “create medical certificate” and “medical screening” in  FIG. 20 , and have the same constituent elements as “create notification”. Note that the shapes and meanings of the symbols used in the diagrams are in compliance with BPMN, and the explanation thereof is omitted since they are not the features of the present invention. Moreover, while a processing category (for instance, Category: C, etc.) is described in the business information, this is automatically determined in processing S 204  described later. The influenced business process extraction system that is operated based on the foregoing background is now explained in detail. 
     ===Overview of Embodiment=== 
     In this embodiment, foremost, the business process development terminal  1  makes an inquiry to the business process information management system  2  regarding a business process in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, and the business process information management system  2  extracts the business process which coincides with the inquired condition and sends the extracted business process to the business process development terminal  1 , the business process development terminal  1  receives an input of the logical relation of the business information that is undefined and sends the input logical relation of the business information to the business process information management system  2 , the business process information management system  2  registers the logical relation of the business information, the business process development terminal  1  subsequently receives a revision input of the business process from the business process developer, the business process information management system  2  registers the revised business process, the business process information management system  2  extracts the influenced business processes according to the influence extraction instruction received by the business process development terminal  1 , and the business process development terminal  1  displays the influenced business processes to the business process developer. 
     In this system, the business process development terminal  1  and the business process information management system  2  are connected via a communication network  3 . Note that a plurality of business process development terminals  1  may also be connected to the communication network  3 . Moreover, the business process development terminal  1  and the business process information management system  2  may also be installed within a single computer system without going through a communication network. Furthermore, the business process information registration function group within the business process information management system  2  may also be installed in a separate computer system. In this embodiment, explained is a case where the business process development terminal  1  and the business process information management system  2  are each installed in a different computer system, and operated by being installed at remote locations. The communication network  3  is a LAN, internet, or any other arbitrary wired or wireless network. The business process development terminal  1  and the business process information management system  2  are each a computer comprising a CPU for performing arithmetic processing, a storage device (for example, RAM, ROM, hard disk, etc.) for storing data and programs, and a communication device for communicating with external equipment via the network  3 . 
     ===Hardware Configuration=== 
       FIG. 2  shows the typical hardware configuration of a computer used as the business process information management system  2 . The computer configured as shown in  FIG. 2  is also used as the business process development terminal  1 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the business process information management system  2  comprises a CPU  2001 , a memory  2002 , a storage device  2003 , a communication interface  2004 , a recording medium reading device  2005 , a recording medium  2006 , an input device  2007 , and an output device  2008 . 
     The CPU  2001  realizes various functions by executing programs  2009  of the business process information management system  2  stored in the memory  2002 . The recording medium reading device  2005  is a device for reading the programs and data recorded in the recording medium  2006 . The read programs and data are stored in the memory  2002 . Accordingly, for instance, the programs  2009  stored in the memory  2002  may be read from the recording medium  2006  by using the recording medium reading device  2005 , and then stored in the memory  2002 . As the recording medium  2006 , used may be, for example, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a hard disk, a flexible disk, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic tape or the like. The recording medium reading device  2005  may be built into the business process information management system  2 , or may be provided outside the business process information management system  2 . The input device  2007  is used by an operator to input data and the like into the business process information management system  2 . As the input device  2007 , used may be, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone or the like. The output device  2008  is a device for externally outputting information. As the output device  2008 , used may be, for example, a display, a printer, a speaker or the like. The communication interface  2004  is a device for connecting to the communication network  3  to enable communication with the business process development terminal  1   
     A processing name list information storage unit  208 , a revision history information storage unit  209 , a business variation information storage unit  210 , a task information storage unit  211 , a business information information storage unit  212 , a business information dictionary  213 , a department/actor list information storage unit  214 , a branch information storage unit  215  and a connection information storage unit  216  shown in  FIG. 1  are provided in the storage device  2003 . Moreover, a system-side information sending/receiving unit  201 , a processing category analyzing unit  202 , a difference extraction unit  203 , an influence extraction unit  204 , a business information logical relation extraction unit  205 , a business process information registration unit  206  and a business process information reading unit  207  are stored in the memory  2002 , and realized as programs that are executed by the CPU  2001 . Moreover, data is input to the respective computers via the input device  2007 . 
     ===Work Process Development Terminal  1 === 
     In the business process development terminal  1  of  FIG. 1 , the business process development unit  101  comprises a business process development function and comprises, as shown in  FIG. 16  to  FIG. 18 , the functions of displaying a screen for editing the business process, displaying a screen for editing the business information, displaying a screen of the influence extraction result, and displaying a screen showing the reception of the influenced business process selected by the business process developer and the revision history of the revision source business process. 
     The terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  comprises a function of sending newly developed or revised business process information (including business information information) to the system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  of the business process information management system  2 , and receiving, from the system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  of the business process information management system  2 , business process information in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, influenced business process information, and revision history information of the revision source business process. 
     ===Work Process Information Management System  2 === 
     In the business process information management system  2  of  FIG. 1 , the processing name list information storage unit  208  stores, as shown in  FIG. 13 , the processing name of the task and the processing category corresponding to the processing name as the constituent elements of the business process. Here, the processing category shows the relation between the business process and the task and business information, and will be one among “Create”, “Read”, “Update”, and “Delete” according to the forms or processing performed to the business system (file, DB) based on the business process and the task. “Create” means creating or adding new business information, “Read” means reading existing business information, “Update” means updating existing business information, and “Delete” means deleting existing business information. The processing name list information is used for commonalizing the processing name of tasks and for the processing category analysis of processing S 204  described later. As the task of processing business information, a name configured from “business information”+“processing name” may be assigned, and the business process developer is caused to select the processing name from the processing list information in the course of defining the tasks for commonalizing the “processing name”. In this embodiment, the processing name list information is retained in advance, but the processing name and the processing category may be edited as needed. 
     The revision history information storage unit  209  stores, as shown in  FIG. 14 , a revision ID, a business process name, a changed element, a pre-revision attribute, a post-revision attribute, a revision operation, and a difference extraction date/time. Here, revision operation is one among addition, change, and deletion performed to the constituent element of the business process. 
     The business variation information storage unit  210  stores, as shown in  FIG. 15 , a business variation ID, a business variation, and a business purpose. Here, business purpose is one among creation, reference, update, and deletion of business information to be utilized in a certain business operation. For example, the business purpose of the business variation of “create notification” having a business variation ID of “V001” is to “Read” (refer to), as the processing category, the business information of “notification information” to be utilized in the utilization business of “medical screening”. 
     The task information storage unit  211  stores, as shown in  FIG. 7 , a business ID, a general process, a business process, a task, a reference business information ID, a reference department ID, and a reference actor ID. 
     The business information information storage unit  212  stores, as shown in  FIG. 8 , a business ID, business information, and a processing category (CRUD). Note that the business information is configured from a logical relation (AND, OR, XOR) between sets of business information, a reference business information ID, and an I/O relation (I/O). 
     The business information dictionary  213  is the dictionary information of business information and stores, as shown in  FIG. 9 , a business information ID, and business information name. The business information dictionary  213  is used for commonalizing the business information in the business process. For example, the diffusion of business information is prevented by selecting the business information among the business information names stored in the business information dictionary upon defining the business information. Moreover, in this embodiment, while the business information dictionary is retained in advance, the business information ID and the business information name may be edited as needed. 
     The department/actor list information storage unit  214  stores, as shown in  FIG. 10 , a department ID, a department name, an actor ID, and an actor name. The department/actor list information storage unit  214  is also used for commonalizing the department name and the actor name in the same manner as the business information dictionary  213 , and can be edited as needed. 
     The branch information storage unit  215  stores, as shown in  FIG. 11 , a business process, a branch ID, a branch name, a branch condition, and a transition connection flow ID. 
     The connection information storage unit  216  stores, as shown in  FIG. 12 , a business process, a connection flow (connection flow ID, sequence (S))/message (M)), a connection source business/branch ID (From), and a connection destination business/branch ID (To). 
     Note that the data stored in the task information storage unit  211 , the business information information storage unit  212 , the business information dictionary  213 , the department/actor list information storage unit  214 , the branch information storage unit  215  and the connection information storage unit  216  is data of the table structure configuring the business process, but it may also be retained as data of a tree structure as represented by XML. 
     The system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  comprises a function of receiving, from the business process development terminal  1 , an inquiry regarding the business process information in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, information concerning the logical relation of business information, revised business process information, influence extraction instruction information of the business process, and selection information of the business process selected by the business process developer, and sending, to the business process development terminal  1 , business process information in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, influence extraction result information, and revision history information of the revision source business process. 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  comprises a function of analyzing the processing category from the I/O relation and the processing name list information storage unit  208  based on the combination of the task and business information as the constituent elements of the business process sent from the business process development terminal  1 . 
     The difference extraction unit  203  comprises a function of extracting the difference between the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process of the business process information sent from the business process development terminal  1 . 
     The influence extraction unit  204  comprises a function of extracting the influenced business processes based on the business information to be used in the business process to be revised. 
     The business information logical relation extraction unit  205  comprises a function of extracting the task and business information in which the logical relation between the sets of business information is undefined in the business process for which an inquiry was received from the business process development terminal  1 . 
     The business process information registration unit  206  comprises a function of storing the business process information sent from the business process development terminal  1 , processing category of the business information and information concerning the logical relation in the task information storage unit  211 , the business information information storage unit  212 , the branch information storage unit  215  and the connection information storage unit  216 , and storing the revision history information in the revision history information storage unit  209 . 
     The business process information reading unit  207  comprises a function of reading the required business process information from the task information storage unit  211 , the business information information storage unit  212 , the branch information storage unit  215  and the connection information storage unit  216  in response to inquiries concerning various types of business process information. 
     ===Overview of System Processing=== 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the registration of the business information logical relation, registration of the business process information and influence extraction in the influenced business process extraction system. Moreover, the processing shown in  FIG. 3  is realized by the CPU executing programs in the business process development terminal  1  and the business process information management system  2 , respectively. 
     Processing S 101  to processing S 107  are processes that are executed by the business process development terminal  1 , and processing S 201  to processing S 209  are processes that are executed by the business process information management system  2 , respectively. 
     ===Processing of Business Information Logical Relation Registration=== 
     The business process information of a standard specification such as BPMN does not include the logical relation of business information which is required in the influence extraction processing described later. In this processing, a business process in which the logical relation of business information is undefined is extracted, and information of the logical relation of business information that was input by the business process developer for the business process is registered. 
     &lt;Processing S 101 &gt; 
     Processing S 101  is now explained with reference to  FIG. 3 . The terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1  receives an inquiry instruction from the business process developer regarding a business process in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, and sends the inquiry of the corresponding business process to the business process information management system  2 . 
     &lt;Processing S 201 &gt; 
     The business information logical relation extraction unit  205  of the business process information management system  2  scans the “logical relation” and the “reference business information ID” of the business information information storage unit  212 , extracts the business ID in which the logical relation of business information is undefined, and sends the business process including the task of the corresponding business ID to the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1 . 
     &lt;Processing S 102 &gt; 
     The information sending/receiving unit  101  of the business process development terminal  1  receives the business process information in which the logical relation of business information is undefined from the business process information management system  2 , the business process development unit  101  receives an input of the logical relation of business information from the business process developer, and the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  sends the information concerning the logical relation of business information to the system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  of the business process information management system  2 . 
     &lt;Processing S 202 &gt; 
     The business process information registration unit  206  of the business process information management system  2  registers, in the business information information storage unit  212 , the information concerning the logical relation of business information sent from the business process development terminal  1 . 
     ===Processing of Business Process Information Registration=== 
     The processing of receiving business process information that was revised by the business process developer, extracting the difference before and after the revision, analyzing the processing category of business information, and registering the business process information, difference information and processing category information is now explained. Here, the difference information is intended for suggesting the contents of revision when the business process developer revises the influenced business processes and supporting the revision of the business process, and the processing category information is information that is required in the influence extraction processing. 
     &lt;Processing S 103 &gt; 
     The business process development unit  101  of the business process development terminal  1  receives the revision of the business process pursuant to changes in the business requirement made by the business process developer, and the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  sends the revised business process information to the business process information management system  2 . In this embodiment, for example, on the business process editing screen  501  shown in  FIG. 16 , the additional input of a framed section  5012  including the task of “confirm notification (copy)” and other tasks is received in the business process editing area  5011  of the displayed business process of “create notification” according to the revision requirement of “deliver copy of notification to insured person based on ‘create notification’”, and the revised business process information is sent to the business process information management system  2 . The timing of sending information shall be, for instance, when the “Register” button of  FIG. 16  is pressed. Note that, when the business information is to be revised, for instance, by selecting the task in which the business information is to be edited, displaying a right-click menu, and selecting “edit business information”, the business information editing screen  502  shown in  FIG. 17  is activated, the required editing of business information is received, the screen is closed by the “Select” button being pressed, and the screen thereafter returns to the business process editing screen  501 . 
     &lt;Processing S 203 &gt; 
     Returning to the explanation of  FIG. 3 , the difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  receives the business process information sent from the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1 , and executes the processing for extracting the difference between the pre-revision business process and the and post-revision business process. 
     Details of processing S 203  will be the processes of processing S 2031  to processing S 2037  in the flowchart shown in  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  is a flowchart showing the processing flow of extracting difference information of the business process in the business process information management system  2 . 
     &lt;Processing S 2031 &gt; 
     The business process information reading unit  207  of the business process information management system  2  reads pre-revision business process information from the task information storage unit  211 , the business information information storage unit  212 , the branch information storage unit  215 , and the connection information storage unit  216 . In this embodiment, the business process information reading unit  207  reads the task information of business ID “B 1 - 2 - 1 ” to business ID “B 1 - 2 - 7 ” from the task information storage unit  211 , reads business information information of business ID “B 1 - 2 - 1 ” to business ID “B 1 - 2 - 7 ” from the business information information storage unit  212 , reads branch information included in the business process of “create notification” from the branch information storage unit  215 , and reads connection information included in the business process of “create notification” from the connection information storage unit  216 . 
     &lt;Processing S 2032 &gt; 
     When the revision of the business process is a new addition or deletion of a business process, processing S 203  is ended. Meanwhile, when the revision of the business process is not a new addition or deletion of a business process; that is, when it is a change in the business process, processing S 2033  is executed. This is because, when the revision is a new addition or deletion of a business process, the business process information will become the difference information even without extracting the difference. The processing can thereby be optimized by minimizing the execution of subsequent processing only when necessary. 
     &lt;Processing S 2033 &gt; 
     The difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  compares the task information of the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process, and extracts the task name as the pre-revision attribute and the post-revision attribute, and “Add”, “Change” or “Delete” as the revision operation. In this embodiment, “-” is extracted as the pre-revision attribute which means “not applicable, “confirm notification (copy)” is extracted as the post-revision attribute, and “Add” or the like is extracted as the revision operation. 
     &lt;Processing S 2034 &gt; 
     The difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  compares the branch information of the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process, extracts the branch name as the pre-revision attribute and the post-revision attribute, and extracts “Add”, “Change” or “Delete” as the revision operation. In this embodiment, the branch information is not revised. 
     &lt;Processing S 2035 &gt; 
     The difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  compares the business information information of the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process, and extracts the business information name as the pre-revision attribute and the post-revision attribute, and extracts “Add”, “Change” or “Delete” as the revision operation. In this embodiment, “-” is extracted as the pre-revision attribute, “notification (copy) information” is extracted as the post-revision attribute, and “Add” is extracted as the revision operation. 
     &lt;Processing S 2036 &gt; 
     The difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  compares the reference department ID and the reference actor ID of the task information of the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process, extracts the department and actor name as the pre-revision attribute and the post-revision attribute, and extracts “Add”, “Change” or “Delete” as the revision operation. In this embodiment, information concerning the department and actor is not revised. 
     &lt;Processing S 2037 &gt; 
     The difference extraction unit  203  of the business process information management system  2  compares the connection information of the pre-revision business process and the post-revision business process, extracts the connection source business/branch name and connection destination business/branch name of the pre-revision attribute and the post-revision attribute, respectively, and extracts “Add”, “Change” or “Delete” as the revision operation. In this embodiment, “enter notification date and insured person information-&gt;end” is extracted as the pre-revision attribute, “enter notification date and insured person information-&gt;confirm notification (copy)” is extracted as the post-revision attribute, and “Change” or the like is extracted as the revision operation. 
     &lt;Processing S 204 &gt; 
     Returning to the explanation of  FIG. 3 , the processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  implements processing for determining the processing category from the I/O relation and the processing name list information storage unit  208  based on the combination of the task and business information as the constituent elements of the edited business process. 
     Details of processing S 204  will be the processes of processing S 2041  to processing S 2049  in the flowchart shown in  FIG. 5 .  FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing the processing flow of analyzing the processing category in the business process information management system  2 . 
     &lt;Processing S 2041 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  acquires the business process information to be revised. In this embodiment, the information of the business process of “create notification” is acquired. 
     &lt;Processing S 2042 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  executes processing S 2043  when processing category analysis is required according to the revision, and ends processing S 204  when processing category analysis is not required. Here, revisions that require the processing category analysis are the addition of a business process, addition of a task or business information, and change to the I/O relation of the business information or the processing name. Meanwhile, revisions that do not require the processing category analysis are all other cases; that is, deletion of a task or I/O information, or deletion of a business process. Based on the foregoing processing, it is possible to optimize processing S 204  by executing the processing category analysis only when the processing category is added or changed. In this embodiment, since the task and business information are added in the business process of “create notification” to be revised, this corresponds to a revision which requires the analysis of the processing category. 
     &lt;Processing S 2043 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  extracts the I/O relation of the pair of task and business information. In this embodiment, for example, the I/O relation of the pair of the task of “enter past medical history information” and the business information of “notification information” is “output”, and the I/O relation of the task of “confirm notification information” and the business information of “notification information” is “input”. 
     &lt;Processing S 2044 &gt; 
     When the I/O relation of the pair of task and business information is an output relation, processing S 2045  is executed, and the I/O relation is an input relation, processing S 2047  is executed. 
     &lt;Processing S 2045 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  extracts the processing name of the task. In this embodiment, for example, “Enter” is extracted as the processing name of the task of “enter past medical history information”. 
     &lt;Processing S 2046 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  compares the extracted processing name of the task and the processing name list information of the processing name list information storage unit  208 , and determines whether the processing category is “Create”, “Update”, or “Delete”. In this embodiment, for example, the processing category of “Create” corresponding to the extracted processing name of “Enter” of the task of “enter past medical history information” is read, and the processing category is thereby determined as “Create”. 
     &lt;Processing S 2047 &gt; 
     The processing category analyzing unit  202  of the business process information management system  2  determines the processing category as “Read” when the I/O relation of the pair of task and business information is an input relation since this will be the processing of reading existing information. In this embodiment, since the I/O relation of the pair of the task of “confirm notification information” and the business information of “notification information” is an input relation, the processing category is determined as “Read”. 
     &lt;Processing S 2048 &gt; 
     When the processing category analysis of each piece of business information linked to the task is complete, processing S 2049  is executed, and when the processing category analysis is not yet complete, processing S 2043  is executed. 
     &lt;Processing S 2049 &gt; 
     When the processing category analysis of each task in the business process is complete, processing S 204  is ended, and when the processing category analysis is not yet complete, processing S 2043  is executed. 
     &lt;Processing S 205 &gt; 
     Returning to the explanation of  FIG. 3 , the business process information registration unit  206  of the business process information management system  2  stores the revised business process information in the task information storage unit  211 , the business information information storage unit  212 , the branch information storage unit  215 , and the connection information storage unit  216 , stores the difference information extracted in processing S 203  in the revision history information storage  209 , and stores the processing category determined in processing S 204  in the processing category (CRUD) of the business information information storage unit  212 . 
     ===Processing of Influence Extraction=== 
     The processing of extracting influenced business process information based on the business process information to be revised, and displaying the business process information which was selected and received among the influenced business processes, together with the revision history information of the business process to be revised, to the business process developer is now explained. 
     &lt;Processing S 104 &gt; 
     The business process development unit  101  of the business process development terminal  1  receives an influence extraction instruction from the business process developer, and the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  sends the revised business process information and the influenced business process extraction instruction information to the business process information management system  2 . The timing of sending information shall be, for example, when the “influence extraction” button of  FIG. 16  is pressed. 
     &lt;Processing S 206 &gt; 
     Returning to the explanation of  FIG. 3 , the influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  receives the revised business process information and the influence extraction instruction instruction information sent from the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1 , and extracts the influenced business processes. 
     Details of processing S 206  will be the processes of processing S 2061  to processing S 2069  in the flowchart shown in  FIG. 6 . 
     &lt;Processing S 2061 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  acquires the business information ID and the business information to be used in the business process to be revised. In this embodiment, the business information of “notification information” of the business information ID of “D 002 ” to be used in the business process of “create notification” to be revised is acquired. 
     &lt;Processing S 2062 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  scans the reference business information ID of the business information information storage unit  212 , identifies the business ID holding the business information ID extracted in processing S 2061 , and extracts the business process including the corresponding business ID. In this embodiment, the business ID of “B 1 - 2 - 2 ” or the like holding the business information ID of “D 002 ” extracted in processing S 2061  is identified, and the business process of “create notification” including the corresponding business ID is extracted. Similarly, the business processes of “medical screening” and “correct notification” are extracted. 
     &lt;Processing S 2063 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  scans the logical relation and the reference business information ID of the business information information storage unit  212 , extracts the other business information ID having a logical relation of XOR with the business information ID extracted in processing S 2061 , identifies the business ID holding the corresponding business information ID, extracts the business process including the corresponding business ID, and thereby determines the extracted business process as the utilization business of the business variation. In this embodiment, the other business information ID of “D 003 ” having a logical relation of XOR with the business information ID of “D 002 ” extracted in processing S 2061  is extracted, the business ID of “B 1 - 5 - 1 ” or the like having the business information ID of “D 003 ” is identified, the business process of “medical screening” including the foregoing business ID is extracted, and determined as the utilization business of the business variation. Note that the shape of the business process to be subject to this processing, for example, corresponds to the shape shown in “Image of processing S 2063 ” at the upper part of  FIG. 19 . The upper part of  FIG. 19  represents the flow that the business will be conducted of either the flow of task  1  and task  2  using information A or the flow of task  1  and task  2  using information B. 
     &lt;Processing S 2064 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  extracts the business information of the series of tasks using the business information ID extracted in processing S 2061  as well as of the other tasks branching therefrom, and the business process using such business information, and determines the extracted business process as the utilization business of the business variation. Note that the shape of the business process to be subject to this processing, for example, corresponds to the shape shown in “Image of processing S 2064 ” at the lower part of  FIG. 19 . The lower part of  FIG. 19  represents the flow that the business will be conducted of either the flow of task A 1  and task A 2  using information A or the flow of task B 1  and task B 2  using information B. Note that processing S 2063  and processing S 2064  are performed in parallel for the optimization of the processing, and each processing advances to processing S 2065  after it is completed. The term “parallel” used herein refers to processing that is performed with a different device or a different function, and the processing flows do not have to coincide temporally. Moreover, the processing may also be performed in a time series, rather than in parallel. 
     &lt;Processing S 2065 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  extracts the business process that is linked to the business information ID extracted in processing S 2063  and processing S 2064 . In this embodiment, the business process of “create medical certificate” linked to the business information ID of “D 003 ” extracted in processing S 2063  and processing S 2064 . 
     &lt;Processing S 2066 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  identifies the processing category of the business process from the processing category of the pair of task and business information included for each business process with regard to the business process extracted in processing S 2062  to processing S 2065 . In this embodiment, for example, since there are the task of “Create” and the task of “Read” in the processing category of the business information of “diagnosis information” in the business process of “create medical certificate” of  FIG. 22 , the two tasks of “Create” and “Read” as the processing category of the business process of “create medical certificate” and the business information of “diagnosis information”. &lt;Processing S 2067 &gt; 
     When the identification of the processing category of each of the extracted business processes is complete, processing S 2068  is executed, and when the identification of the processing category is not yet complete, processing S 2066  is executed. 
     &lt;Processing S 2068 &gt; 
     When the influence extraction of each piece of business information used by the business process to be revised, processing S 2069  is executed, when the influence extraction is not yet complete, processing S 2062  is executed. 
     &lt;Processing S 2069 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  deduplicates the business processes extracted in processing  2062  to processing  2068 , creates a business variation ID, and stores the deduplicated business process in the business variation information storage unit  210 . In this embodiment, the business processes of “create notification”, “medical screening”, and “correct notification” extracted in processing S 2062  and the business process of “create medical certificate” extracted in processing S 2066  are stored in the business process variation, the business process of “medical screening” extracted in processing S 2063  and processing S 2064  as the business purpose of each business process are stored in the utilization business, and the business information for each business process and the processing category of the business process identified in processing S 2066  are stored. 
     &lt;Processing S 207 &gt; 
     Returning to the explanation of  FIG. 3 , the system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  of the business process information management system  2  sends the influenced business process information, in which the business process to be revised is excluded from the business variation information, to the business process development terminal  1 . This is because the business process to be revised itself is not an influenced business process. 
     &lt;Processing S 105 &gt; 
     The terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1  receives the influenced business process information from the business process information management system  2 , and the business process development unit  101  displays this in the influence extraction result display area  5031  of the influence extraction result screen shown in  FIG. 18 . Note that, in this embodiment, while the display order of the influence extraction result display area  5031  is the order of appearance of the business processes in the general process shown in  FIG. 20 , for instance, the business process having the same processing category as the business process to be revised may be displayed at a higher position; that is, the business process of “create medical certificate” having the same processing category as the processing category “Create” or “Read” of the business process of “create notification” to be revised may be displayed at a higher position. 
     &lt;Processing S 106 &gt; 
     The business process development unit  101  of the business process development terminal  1  receives from the business process developer the selection of the business process information to be displayed among the extraction result of the influenced business processes, and the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  sends the selection reception information to the business process information management system  2 . The timing of sending information shall be, for example, when the “display” button of  FIG. 18  is pressed. In this embodiment, let it be assumed that the “display” button of the influenced business process of “create medical certificate” has been pressed. 
     &lt;Processing S 208 &gt; 
     The influence extraction unit  204  of the business process information management system  2  receives the selection reception information of the business process from the terminal-side information sending/receiving unit  102  of the business process development terminal  1 , and acquires the revision history information of the business process to be revised from the revision history information storage unit  209 . 
     &lt;Processing S 209 &gt; 
     The system-side information sending/receiving unit  201  of the business process information management system  2  sends, to the business process development terminal  1 , the selected and received business process information and the revision history information of the business process to be revised acquired in processing S 208 . In this embodiment, the selected and received business process of “create medical certificate” and the revision history information of the business process of “create notification” to be revised are sent to the business process development terminal  1 . 
     &lt;Processing S 107 &gt; 
     The business process development unit  101  of the business process development terminal  1  receives, from the business process information management system  2 , the selected and received business process information, and the revision history information of the business process to be revised acquired in processing S 208 , and, as shown in  FIG. 18 , and displays the selected and received business process information in the business process editing area  5032 , and displayed the revision history information of the business process to be revised acquired in processing S 208  in the revision history display area  5033 . The business process developer discusses with the person in charge of the business (for instance, person in charge of the business at the client corporation) regarding whether to revise the displayed business process, and revises the business process as needed. 
     According to this embodiment, it is possible to provide a method and a system capable of efficiently and accurately extracting the other business processes which may need to be revised due to the influence from the revision of a certain business process. It is thereby possible to optimize the development and revision of business processes. Moreover, by developing a high-quality business process which can avoid the omission of reflecting a modified business requirement, it is possible to inhibit the reworking of the system design and development of subsequent processes. 
     The foregoing explanation was provided for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. It goes without saying that the present invention may be modified and improved without deviating from the gist of this invention, and also covers all equivalents of the present invention. 
     REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 
       1 : business process development terminal,  2 : business process information management system,  3 : communication network,  101 : business process development terminal,  102 : terminal-side information sending/receiving unit,  201 : system-side information sending/receiving unit,  202 : processing category analyzing unit,  203 : difference extraction unit,  204 : influence extraction unit,  205 : business information logical relation extraction unit,  206 : business process information registration unit,  207 : business process information reading unit,  208 : processing name list information storage unit,  209 : revision history information storage unit,  210 : business variation information storage unit,  211 : task information storage unit,  212 : business information information storage unit,  213 : business information dictionary,  214 : department/actor list information storage unit,  215 : branch information storage unit,  216 : connection information storage unit.