Distributed activity management
First Claim
1. A method for modeling a business process, comprising:
- generating a first activity of a workflow from one or more work action templates of a backend enterprise system, the generating including providing a parameter to associate the first activity with a business scenario;
generating a second activity of a workflow from one or more work action templates of the backend enterprise system, the generating including providing a parameter to define a relationship of the second activity with a business scenario; and
relating the first and second activities via a request-to-perform relationship.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses enable generating distributed workflows that couple actions with a business scenario, and relate activities to each other with request-to-perform (RTP) relationships. The activities are coupled to the business scenario to generate a workflow, and the RTP relationships enable management of distributed activities that are part of the workflow. Individual actions and activities that are part of a business objective are modeled. The modeled actions define resources related to a business activity. The individual activities can be instantiated and related with RTP relationships to result in a workflow that can be generated and managed by the enterprise system. Interactions between users can be captured within the system as part of the workflow. In one embodiment, distributed workflows operate within traditional fixed (e.g., ERP) workflows, for example, by modeling complex tasks of a fixed workflow that actually requires multiple actions before being completed.
85 Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for modeling a business process, comprising:
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generating a first activity of a workflow from one or more work action templates of a backend enterprise system, the generating including providing a parameter to associate the first activity with a business scenario;
generating a second activity of a workflow from one or more work action templates of the backend enterprise system, the generating including providing a parameter to define a relationship of the second activity with a business scenario; and
relating the first and second activities via a request-to-perform relationship. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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2-5. -5. (canceled)
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7-21. -21. (canceled)
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22. A method for modeling a business process, comprising:
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instantiating from a template in a backend enterprise system a fixed workflow having a series of multiple tasks, at least one of the tasks being a complex task having multiple activities, each task of the fixed workflow being a state of the fixed workflow, where state changes in the fixed workflow are based on a transactional control;
instantiating from a template in the backend enterprise system a distributed workflow for the complex task, the distributed workflow having an activity context containing the multiple activities and resources associated with the complex task, each activity being a state of the distributed workflow, where state changes in the distributed workflow are based on a request-to-perform control; and
monitoring the fixed workflow and the distributed workflow with the backend enterprise system. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. A system comprising:
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a nonvolatile storage device having stored thereon a template that defines a fixed workflow having a series of multiple tasks, at least one of the tasks being a complex task having multiple activities, each task of the fixed workflow being a state of the fixed workflow, where state changes in the fixed workflow are based on a transactional control; and
a template that defines a distributed workflow for the complex task, the distributed workflow having an activity context containing the multiple activities and resources associated with the complex task, each activity being a state of the distributed workflow, where state changes in the distributed workflow are based on a request-to-perform control; and
a memory device coupled to the nonvolatile storage device in which to instantiate the fixed workflow and the distributed workflow from the templates, the memory device further including a workflow monitor to manage the fixed workflow and the distributed workflow, including documenting the state changes in the fixed workflow and the state changes in the distributed workflow.
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27. A method for modeling a business process, comprising:
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generating a business scenario description defining human interactions to accomplish a business purpose;
defining the business scenario description as multiple activities to be distributed to various performers;
generating an activity description defining an activity as one or more actions to be accomplished by a single performer;
associating one or more activity descriptions to the business scenario description;
associating one or more resources with the business scenario description, the resources to be passed to and returned from activity descriptions of the business scenario description; and
associating one or more resource with the activity description, the resources to be passed to and returned from the actions of the activity description. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions to cause a machine to perform operations including:
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generating a business scenario description defining a work context of human interactions to accomplish a business purpose, including defining activities to be distributed to various performers to accomplish the business purpose;
generating an activity description template defining a business activity for a performer, the activity description including a parameter configurable to define a one or more resources associated with the business activity;
generating a work action template defining work to be executed by the performer to accomplish a distributed activity;
generating an association between the action template and the activity description template, and an association between the activity description template and the business scenario description; and
storing the business scenario description, the activity description template, the action template, and the associations in an enterprise system. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification