Patent Document ID: 8849974
Application ID: 12759947
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for analyzing components of a network data processing system, the method comprising: obtaining, by a computer system, known information about a number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; creating, by the computer system, a model of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system using the known information about the number of hardware and software components; identifying, by the computer system, missing information about the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system based on the model of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; creating, by the computer system, an associated cloud of people having knowledge of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; assigning, by the computer system, a confidence level to each person in the associated cloud of people that determines a quality of information provided by each person in the associated cloud of people having knowledge of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system based on a role of a person in the associated cloud of people, a relationship of the role to the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system, how long the relationship existed, a reputation of the person, an ability of the person to perform the role, and an amount of the knowledge possessed by the person regarding the number of hardware and software components, wherein the computer system increases the confidence level associated with the person in the associated cloud of people when information provided by the person is validated by one or more other people, and wherein the computer system decreases the confidence level associated with the person when the information provided by the person is invalidated by the one or more other people, and wherein the computer system uses the associated cloud of people having the knowledge of the number of hardware and software components to identify a number of people having roles associated with the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; selecting, by the computer system, the number of people having the roles associated with the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system to obtain the identified missing information about the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; sending, by the computer system, a number of requests that includes the model of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system to the number of people having the roles associated with the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system requesting the identified missing information about the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system; and responsive to receiving, by the computer system, a number of responses that includes the identified missing information about the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system to the number of requests, updating, by the computer system, the model of the number of hardware and software components in the network data processing system.