Patent ID: 7433838

Claim:
In a computing environment including a processing unit and storage media, a method of managing business interactions between opposing parties, the method comprising one or more computer processors performing acts of: mapping the business interactions between a service provider and a service consumer to one or more service contracts, the service contracts defining various parameters that the service provider and service consumer agree to; mapping the one or more service contracts to machine readable code, the service contracts defined by one or more business transaction patterns included in a finite set of business transaction patterns and one or more service interaction patterns, wherein the business transaction patterns comprise a finite set of management tasks with definable property values, such that any business interaction between the service provider and service consumer can be mapped to serialized machine readable code; wherein the finite set of transaction patterns and management tasks include: an offer and acceptance pattern, including at least a specification of a time to acknowledge receipt, a time to acknowledge acceptance, a time to perform, a specification that authorization is required, and a specification of non-repudiation of origin and content; a query/response pattern, specifying at least a time to perform; a request/response pattern, specifying at least a time to perform; a request/confirm pattern specifying at least a time to perform; an information distribution pattern specifying at least a time to acknowledge receipt and a time to perform; and a notification pattern, specifying at least a time to acknowledge receipt and a time to perform, reading the machine readable code in an IT system; and generating management tasks associated with fulfilling obligations required by the business interactions.