Patent ID: 8612931

Claim:
A method for interactive design of process model for software installation and configuration, comprising: generating a process model from a natural language description of software installation or configuration related operation; identifying a data structure representing one or more work products related to the process model, the work products comprising at least documentations associated with deployment of IT systems; identifying one or more elements of the data structure related to one or more sub-processes of the process model; capturing input information associated with said one or more sub-processes; storing the input information and linking, by a processor, the stored input information with said one or more elements of the data structure that correspond to said one or more sub-processes; displaying a simulation of said one or more sub-processes in the process model, wherein the simulation uses the stored input information; graphically displaying the process model including the one or more sub-processes via a graphical user interface, wherein the step of capturing including allowing a user to select a sub-process for inputting information for the selected sub-process; displaying an annotation symbol associated with the displayed sub-process, if the displayed sub-process has associated input information captured and stored previously; and allowing the user to select the annotation symbol to retrieve and display the associated input information.