Decomposition of tasks into extensible and customizable business activities

• US 20060136918A1
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hilerio, Israel, Thakkar, Jigar, Lewis, Elliot S., Sorokin, Sergey
• Granted Patent: US 7,529,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A method for organizing task data used in customer relationship management systems in which task data is decomposed into a set of business activity classes including a set of business task classes, where the business task classes are combined through association or multiple inheritance to create the business activity class. Each task class can be further decomposed into a base task class and a set of task characteristic classes where task definitions may be modified by associating additional task characteristic classes to the base task class.

Claims

1. A method of organizing business task data on a computer-implemented customer relationship management system, the method comprising:

creating a base task class comprising a set of base parameters;

creating a set of task characteristic classes wherein each task characteristic class of the set of task characteristic classes contains a set of task characteristic parameters;

forming a fundamental business task class by associating a first characteristic class with the base task class; and

modifying the fundamental business task class by associating a second characteristic class to the base task class.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the task class with a system application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises creating a table for storing the parameters of the fundamental task class.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the table for storing the parameters of the fundamental task class comprises merging a set of tables of a base task class and a characteristic class.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein associating the fundamental task class with a system application comprises modifying the fundamental task class to include a parameter that is a link to an application and further wherein the link enables the application to communicate with an object derived from the fundamental task class.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the application is an application for creating documents and further wherein the link enables the customer relationship management system to create an information index of content associated with the documents.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of querying for fundamental task class objects based on associations to the base task class.

8. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a display unit that is capable of generating video images;

an input device;

a processing apparatus operatively coupled to said display unit and said input device, said processing apparatus comprising a processor and a memory operatively coupled to said processor;

a network interface connected to a network and to the processing apparatus, said processing apparatus being programmed to;

form a set of task classes, each task class associated with a business task; and

form a business activity class associated with a business activity wherein each business activity class comprises a union of at least two task classes.

9. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein each task class comprises a base task class and a task characteristic class, and further wherein the base task class comprises parameters common to each task class of the set of task classes.

10. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein a set of parameters of the fundamental task class includes a path to an executable program associated with the business task.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein a set of parameters of the business activity class includes a path to an executable program associated with the business activity.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the path comprises data required to execute the executable program in a manner directed by an object based on the business activity class.

13. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processing apparatus is further programmed to create objects based on the task class and business activity class.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the task class and business activity classes are represented by database tables and wherein parameters of the task class and business class are represented by database table fields.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the task classes are superclasses and the business activity class is a subclass of the at least two task classes and inherits the parameters of the at least two task classes.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the business activity class is formed by associating at least two task classes via relationship parameters.

17. The computing apparatus of claim 16, wherein the relationship parameters are contained in a task class.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

forming a set of task objects, each task object of the set of task objects comprising a set of parameters required to execute a business task;

designating a task object of the set of task objects as an index task object, the index task object comprising a fundamental set of parameters required to execute a business activity;

forming a business activity object by associating the index task object with a set of task objects, wherein the business activity object comprises the fundamental set of parameters of the index task object and a set of parameters of the associated set of task objects.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the step of creating a view of a set of business tasks by finding all business activity objects having associations with an index task object associated with a business activity.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising a step of associating the business activity object with a system application.