Dynamically configuring a role-based collaborative space

• US 20060277089A1
• Filed: 06/03/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hubbard, Mark William, Zhang, Qi, Tong, Tack, McKegney, Ross, Zou, Ying
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,094 B2
• 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 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

A method for role-based personalization of a collaborative space can include generating a collaborative space utilizing role information for an interacting user that has been defined by an underlying business process model in a workflow. For example, the step of generating a collaborative space can include parsing the workflow to extract a role model, generating a collaborative space domain model from the role model, selecting a plurality of user interface components based upon the role model, organizing the selected user interface components in the collaborative space, and rendering the collaborative space.

Claims

1. A method for role-based personalization of a collaborative space comprising:

obtaining role-based information for an interacting user that has been defined by an underlying business process model in a workflow; and

generating the collaborative space utilizing the role-based information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a collaborative space comprises:

parsing the workflow to extract a role model;

generating a collaborative space domain model from the role model;

selecting a plurality of user interface components based upon the role model;

organizing the selected user interface components in the collaborative space; and

,

rendering the collaborative space.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the collaborative space domain model comprises selecting a plurality of tasks to be performed by the interacting user based upon the role model and incorporating the selected tasks in the collaborative space domain model.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting of a plurality of user interface components comprises defining mapping rules to transform role information aggregated in the role model to user interface components for incorporation in the collaborative space domain model.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the defining of mapping rules comprises, accepting user-specified mappings between a group of workflow tasks and existing user interface components where existing user interface components exist when the collaborative space is created, but segmenting the workflow to suggest the mapping rules where user interface components do not exist when the collaborative space is created.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the segmenting of the workflow comprises segmenting the workflow based upon role-assignment by decomposing the workflow into segments at a connector connecting tasks for different roles.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the segmenting of the workflow comprises segmenting the workflow based upon a control-flow structure by comparing structural features of the workflow to group tasks in the workflow.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting of a plurality of user interface components comprises selecting at least a task user interface component, a work items user interface component, a process list user interface component and a collaborative tools user interface component to be disposed in the collaborative space.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selecting of a plurality of user interface components further comprises selecting a progress status user interface component for the workflow.

10. A system for role-based personalization of a collaborative space comprising:

a plurality of user interface components disposed in the collaborative space, each user interface component being selected based upon role information extracted from a workflow;

a workflow engine coupled to the collaborative space and configured to process the workflow; and

, an event engine logically disposed between the user interface components and the workflow engine, the event engine enabled to synchronize selected ones of the user interface components responsive to events received from the user interface components in the event engine.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the collaborative space is a workplace.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface components comprise portlets.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising at least one collaboration user interface component disposed in the collaborative space and coupled to an external, supporting service.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for role-based personalization of a collaborative space embodied therein, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable code for obtaining role-based information for an interacting user that has been defined by an underlying business process model in a workflow; and

computer usable code for generating the collaborative space utilizing the role-based information.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable code for generating a collaborative space comprises:

computer usable code for parsing the workflow to extract a role model;

computer usable code for generating a collaborative space domain model from the role model;

computer usable code for selecting a plurality of user interface components based upon the role model;

computer usable code for organizing the selected user interface components in the collaborative space; and

,

computer usable code for rendering the collaborative space.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer usable code for generating the collaborative space domain model comprises computer usable code for selecting a plurality of tasks to be performed by the interacting user based upon the role model and incorporating the selected tasks in the collaborative space domain model.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer usable code for selecting of a plurality of user interface components comprises computer usable code for defining mapping rules to transform role information aggregated in the role model to user interface components for incorporation in the collaborative space domain model.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer usable code for defining of mapping rules comprises computer usable code for accepting user-specified mappings between a group of workflow tasks and existing user interface components where existing user interface components exist when the collaborative space is created, but segmenting the workflow to suggest the mapping rules where user interface components do not exist when the collaborative space is created.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer usable code for segmenting of the workflow comprises computer usable code for segmenting the workflow based upon role-assignment by decomposing the workflow into segments at a connector connecting tasks for different roles.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer usable code for segmenting of the workflow comprises computer usable code for segmenting the workflow based upon a control-flow structure by comparing structural features of the workflow to group tasks in the workflow.

21. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer usable code for selecting of a plurality of user interface components comprises computer usable code for selecting at least a task user interface component, a work items user interface component, a process list user interface component and a collaborative tools user interface component to be disposed in the collaborative space.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the computer usable code for selecting of a plurality of user interface components further comprises computer usable code for selecting a progress status user interface component for the workflow.