Workflow scheduling system

• US 20060224432A1
• Filed: 03/14/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Li, Yang
• Application Number:
  US11/374,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20060224432A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

A workflow scheduling system arranged to provide a workflow to a user who has requested work to be implemented comprises means to generate a workflow comprising an a set of actions and a logical dependency between the actions; means to allocate a resource capacity to each action; and means to assign of one or more of said resources forming the resource capacity to a task comprising one or more of said actions. The system is arranged to enable a user to add one or more constraints dynamically to the workflow scheduling system without the need for the workflow scheduler to be recompiled to apply a constraint to the resources allocated to one or more tasks.

Claims

1. A workflow scheduling system arranged to provide a workflow to a user who has requested work to be implemented, the system comprising:

means to generate a workflow comprising a set of actions and a logical dependency between the actions;

means to allocate a resource capacity to each action;

means to assign of one or more of said resources forming the resource capacity to a task comprising one or more of said actions,

wherein the system is arranged to enable a user to add one or more constraints dynamically to the workflow scheduling system without the need for the workflow scheduler to be recompiled to apply said one or more constraints to the resources allocated to said one or more tasks.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means to allocate a resource capacity to each action allocates resource capacity based on the type of task an action forms and the time-slots available to implement that type of task, wherein each time-slot is representative of the total resource capable of performing the task.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the total resource each time-slot is representative of comprises the total number of individuals capable of performing a type of task.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means to allocate a resource capacity to each action comprises means to allocate resource capacity in dependence on the availability of each resource required.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a resource comprises one of the following:

type of task, an individual, and each individual'"'"'s available time-slots.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

means to allocate one or more appointments for the required resources to implement all tasks required to fulfil the request for work, wherein the means to allocate one or more appointments is arranged to maximise the number of tasks allocated to each appointment.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said means to allocate comprises one or more appointments is arranged to merge a plurality of logically related tasks into single appointments, which can then be scheduled by the workflow system.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the user is capable of selecting one or more of a plurality of appointments offered by the system.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8, wherein if the user selects an inconsistent appointment for a particular task or set of tasks in the workflow, an indication of the inconsistency is provided to the user.

29. A suite of one or more computer programs providing a workflow scheduling system according to claim 1.

10. A method of scheduling a workflow generated in response to a user generating a request for work, the workflow comprising a plurality of tasks each of which must be implemented to fulfil the request for work, the method comprising:

receiving a user initiated request for work;

receiving input from the user comprising one or more initial constraints on a schedule for fulfilling the request for work;

generating a workflow to fulfil said request for work;

processing said one or more initial constraints inputted by the user;

generating one or more proposed schedules for the workflow, the schedules complying with said one or more global constraints;

communicating information relating to said one or more proposed schedules to the user;

receiving one or more additional constraints from the user for a schedule to implement the proposed workflow;

processing said additional constraints inputted by the user to generate one or more revised schedules for the proposed workflow which comply with said one or more additional constraints;

selecting one of said revised proposed workflows according to a set of one or more optimisation rules; and

communicating said selected revised proposed workflow to the user.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the user is able to add one or more additional constraints dynamically without the need for the workflow scheduler to be recompiled.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the steps in the method are arranged to enable a user to iterate the additional constraint selection step and subsequent steps to further constrain the revised proposed workflows.

13. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the steps in the method are arranged to enable a user to fine-tune the selected revised proposed workflows.

14. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein an initial constraint comprises a global constraint.

15. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said additional constraint comprises a global constraint.

16. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said additional constraint comprises a local constraint.

17. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said global constraint comprises a start time and/or an end time and/or a duration for the entire workflow.

18. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein said local constraint comprises a start time and/or an end time and/or a duration for one or more tasks forming a subset of the tasks forming the entire workflow.

19. A method as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 18claim 10, wherein the additional constraint constrains the number of appointments required to implement the work to a predetermined number.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the additional constraint constrains the number of appointments required to implement the work to the least number required.

21. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said optimisation rules seek to optimise the utilisation of the collective capacity a resource requires to implement the work requested.

22. A method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising the step of seeking to optimise the utilisation of each individual resource required prior to said step of communicating the workflow to the end-user.

23. A method as claimed in claim 22, wherein said further step of seeking to optimise the utilisation of each individual resource comprises communicating the revised workflow to a work manager arranged to optimise the utilisation of each individual resource, and wherein said work manager performs said step of further optimising the workflow, and said work manager communicates said further optimised workflow to the workflow scheduling system for communication to the end-user.

28. A computer program comprising instructions for causing one or more processors to perform the method according to claim 10 when the instructions are executed by the processor or processors.

24. A workflow scheduling system arranged to schedule a workflow generated in response to a user generating a request for work, the workflow comprising a plurality of tasks each of which must be implemented to fulfil the request for work, the apparatus comprising:

means to receive a user initiated request for work;

means to receive input from the user comprising one or more initial constraints on a schedule for fulfilling the request for work;

means to generate a workflow to fulfil said request for work;

means to process said one or more initial constraints inputted by the user;

means to generate one or more proposed schedules for the workflow, the schedules complying with said one or more global constraints;

means to communicate information relating to said one or more proposed schedules to the user;

means to receive one or more additional constraints from the user for a schedule to implement the proposed workflow;

means to process said additional constraints inputted by the user to generate one or more revised schedules for the proposed workflow which comply with said one or more additional constraints;

means to select one of said revised proposed workflows according to a set of one or more optimisation rules; and

means to communicate said selected revised proposed workflow to the user.

25. A user interface arranged to enable a user to provide input to the system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the user interface comprises:

means for a user to initiate a request for work to be scheduled by the system;

means to provide input from the user to the system comprising one or more initial constraints on the schedule the system is to generate for fulfilling the request for work;

means to provide one or more additional constraints from the user to the system for the schedule to implement the proposed workflow;

means to receive information indicated the workflow finally proposed by the system to fulfil the requested work.

26. A scheduling system for use in a workflow scheduling system according to claim 24, the scheduler comprising:

means to generate one or more proposed schedules for a workflow, the schedules complying with said one or more global constraints;

means to communicate information relating to said one or more proposed schedules to the system for communication to the user;

means to receive one or more additional constraints from the user for a schedule to implement the proposed workflow;

means to process said additional constraints inputted by the user to generate one or more revised schedules for the proposed workflow which comply with said one or more additional constraints;

means to select one of said revised proposed workflows according to a set of one or more optimisation rules; and

means to communicate said selected revised proposed workflow to the user via said system.

27. An appointments generator arranged for use in the system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the appointments generator is provided as part of an appointment reservation system implemented in a distributed computing environment arranged to permit multiple access to the system, and in which each user is allocated a single session, each session storing information on the user'"'"'s appointment preferences.