Patent ID: 8484206

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for a first system to report on performance of a business process distributed between second systems, wherein the first system lacks identification of business documents used by the second systems in the business process, the method comprising: receiving, at a first system, a first identifier of a business document that is generated or worked on in the business process, the business document having a first timestamp; polling the second systems with the first identifier using the first system, the polling requesting (i) second identifiers for other business documents related to the business document according to a relationship model that is local to the second system being polled, the other business documents also being generated or worked on in the business process, and (ii) metadata associated with the second identifiers, including second timestamps for the other business documents; performing iterative polling of at least some of the second systems with: (i) the received second identifiers and (ii) any subsequently received identifiers using the first system, in place of using the first identifier, the iterative polling ending when the iterative polling has been performed for all received identifiers; and generating a map of the business process as discovered by the polling and the iterative polling, the map reflecting the business process and including at least the received identifiers, received timestamps, and performance information for the business process.