Patent ID: 8438272

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for calculating a quality of service associated with a network participant associated with a networked business process, the method comprising: identifying a profile of a potential network participant associated with a networked business process, wherein the networked business process comprises a set of interrelated business processes, the set of interrelated business processes performed by at least two different network participants, and wherein the profile of the potential network participant defines at least one technical capability of the potential network participant and includes information describing the relative transparency of the potential network participant and defining the potential network participant's ability to: publish information associated with events and milestones of the networked business process during execution, ad hoc modify the networked business process during execution, compensate the networked business process during execution, terminate the networked business process during execution, and provide transparent services to the networked business process; identifying a set of criteria associated with the networked business process, the set of criteria defining at least one technical capability metric used to determine if a particular network participant can participate in the networked business process; analyzing, by operation of a computer, the identified profile of the potential network participant using the identified set of criteria to calculate a value defining the relative correspondence of the identified profile to the identified set of criteria; and determining, by operation of a computer, whether the identified profile of the potential network participant meets or exceeds the identified set of criteria using the calculated value.