AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFYING A CAPACITY OF A RESOURCE

摘要

A method and associated systems for automatically identifying critical resources in an organization. An organization creates a model of the dependencies between pairs of resource types, wherein that model describes how the organization's projects and services are affected when a resource type becomes unavailable. This model may include a system of directed graphs. This model may be used to automatically identify a resource type as critical if unacceptable cost is incurred by resuming projects and services rendered infeasible when the resource type is disrupted. The model may also be used to automatically identify a first resource type as critical for a second resource type when disruption of the first resource type forces the available capacity of the second resource type to fall below a threshold value.

主权项

1. A method for automatically identifying a capacity of a resource, wherein a first type of resource comprises a plurality of instances of the first type of resource, wherein a plurality of instance capacities of the first type of resource are each comprised by an instance of the plurality of instances, wherein a total available capacity of the first type of resource is a sum of all instance capacities of the plurality of instance capacities, and wherein a disruption of a first instance of the plurality of instances results in a corresponding reduction of a first instance capacity comprised by the first instance, the method comprising:
a processor of a computer system accepting information that identifies the plurality of instances,
wherein the plurality of instances comprises a first instance, a second instance, and a third instance, andwherein the first instance comprises a first instance capacity of the first type of resource, the second instance comprises a second instance capacity of the first type of resource, and the third instance comprises a third instance capacity of the first type of resource; the processor identifying an initial value of the total available capacity as a sum of the first instance capacity, the second instance capacity, and the third instance capacity; the processor receiving a set of resource relationships,
wherein a first relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the first instance, the second instance, and a first dependency between the first instance and the second instance,wherein the first dependency identifies that an initial disruption of the first instance causes a disruption of the second instance,wherein a second relationship of the set of resource relationships specifies the second instance, the third instance, and a second dependency between the second instance and the third instance, andwherein the second dependency identifies that a disruption of the second instance causes a disruption of the third instance; the processor determining that the initial disruption of the first instance directly results in a reduction of the first instance capacity by a first-instance reduction amount; the processor inferring that the initial disruption indirectly results in a reduction of the second instance capacity by a second-instance reduction amount, wherein the inferring is a function of the first relationship; the processor further inferring that the initial disruption indirectly results in a reduction of the third instance capacity by a third-instance reduction amount, wherein the further inferring is a function of the second relationship; the processor decreasing the total available capacity by the sum of the first-instance reduction amount, the second-instance reduction amount, and the third-instance reduction amount.