Patent ID: 8359224

Claim:
A method of analyzing functions of a business process model for possible exposure as service capabilities in a service-oriented business process system, the method comprising: receiving a business process model defined by a plurality of objects, each said object having metadata attributes associated therewith; obtaining business process analysis intelligence at design time for each said object; obtaining process performance intelligence at run time for each said object; storing indicators corresponding to the design time and run time gathered intelligence together with the metadata attributes for the corresponding object; applying, via at least one processor of the service-oriented business process system, an overall service candidate algorithm to the stored indicators to arrive at a total service eligibility value for each process function in the model; and exposing a function as a service capability if the total service eligibility value for the function exceeds a predetermined threshold value, wherein the overall service candidate algorithm comprises, for each said function: obtaining a first value by adding together the expected reusability of the function over a predefined time period, the data cohesion of the function, out-tasking and visibility variables respectively indicating the extent to which execution of the function can be out-tasked to stakeholders and can be made visible to stakeholders, obtaining a second value by subtracting from the first value a degree of data coupling for the function, a maximum number of organizational units involved in the function, and a maximum number of application systems involved in the function, and multiplying the second value by a business relevance indicator for the function to obtain the total service eligibility value for the function.