Business process map management

• US 20070276714A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Beringer, Joerg
• Application Number:
  US11/803,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276714A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses enable providing a workflow management environment that provides different workflow management perspectives with different views on a variety of reusable workflow components or workflow resources. The different views may include a swim lane view having multiple separate sections that each represents a different performer, and a list view that represents the resources in transactional order. The workflow management environment defines reusable workflow components and associates the components with the different performers and with each other. The defining of the components and the relationships can define a portion of a workflow.

Claims

1. A method for presenting a business process, comprising:

providing a visual workflow management environment having multiple different views that represent different workflow management perspectives, the environment having multiple separate sections, each separate section representing a separate performer;

defining a first reusable workflow component associated with the business process;

associating the first component with a first performer in a corresponding section of the environment;

defining a second reusable workflow component associated with the business process;

associating the second component with a second performer in a corresponding section of the environment;

defining a relationship between the first and second components to create a portion of a workflow for the business process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different views comprise a list view and a swim lane view.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the different management perspectives comprise management of actions, resources, and conversations.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the actions comprise atomic enterprise business work activities.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the resources comprise a resource provided via a unified resource model.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the resources comprise one or more of a business object, a document, a file, or an enterprise service.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the conversations comprise human-to-human interaction as part of accomplishing the workflow.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the human-to-human interactions include recorded verbal exchanges.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the relationship between the first and second components comprises:

defining a request-to-perform relationship.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically switching from the management environment having multiple separate sections in a swim lane view to a list view having all resources listed and not visually associated with performers.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically switching to a different management perspective by selecting a different resource type to manage.

12. An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions to cause a machine to perform operations for presenting a business process, including:

providing a visual workflow management environment having multiple different views that represent different workflow management perspectives, the environment having multiple separate sections, each separate section representing a separate performer;

defining a first reusable workflow component associated with the business process;

associating the first component with a first performer in a corresponding section of the environment;

defining a second reusable workflow component associated with the business process;

associating the second component with a second performer in a corresponding section of the environment;

defining a relationship between the first and second components to create a portion of a workflow for the business process.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the different views comprise a list view and a swim lane view.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the different management perspectives comprise management of actions, resources, and conversations.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 12, the content to further provide instructions to cause the machine to perform operations including:

dynamically switching from the management environment having multiple separate sections in a swim lane view to a list view having all resources listed and not visually associated with performers.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 12, the content to further provide instructions to cause the machine to perform operations including:

dynamically switching to a different management perspective by selecting a different resource type to manage.

17. A system comprising:

a database having reusable building block components with which to generate a workflow to execute a business process;

a memory coupled to the database, the memory to be loaded with reusable building block components from the database; and

a process map designer loaded in the memory to represent different workflow management perspectives with different views of the reusable building block components, process map designer having multiple separate sections, each separate section representing a separate performer, the process map designer to define first and second reusable workflow components associated with the business process, associate the first component with a first performer in a corresponding section of the process map designer, associate the second component with a second performer in a corresponding section of the process map designer, and define a relationship between the first and second components to create a portion of a workflow for the business process.

18. The system of claim 17, the process map designer to further:

dynamically switch from the management environment having multiple separate sections in a swim lane view to a list view having all resources listed and not visually associated with performers.

19. The system of claim 17, the process map designer to further:

dynamically switch to a different management perspective by selecting a different resource type to manage.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a context determiner coupled to the process map designer, to determine a business context of the business process, and indicate the business context to the process map designer.