STORING AND DEPICTING ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO DYNAMIC EVENT DRIVEN RESTRUCTURING

• US 20080300952A1
• Filed: 06/01/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: COUPER, CHRISTOPHER C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,068,189 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

Abstract

The present invention discloses a solution for storing and depicting complex non-contiguous organizations that are subject to situation-based restructuring. Different views for organization charts of the organization can be generated, where the generated organization charts are collapsed to a minimal view which automatically hides at least a portion of the organization positions in accordance with a desired view. For example, a view showing only filled positions will hide unfilled positions, collapsing intermediate nodes of a shown hierarchy so that child nodes of a hidden node are directly connected to the parent node of the hidden node. A set of indexed database tables can be used to efficiently store details of the organization. The indexed tables can store positions, assignment, and position reporting details in separate 3NF tables. The solution can be integrated to a commercial off-the-shelf command management system and/or to a commercial off-the-shelf front-end charting application.

Claims

1. A software tool stored in a machine readable medium for managing and depicting organization structures comprising:

a set of indexed tables specifying positions in an organization structure, personnel assigned to the positions, and reporting authority relationships among the positions, wherein information for the positions, the assigned personnel, and the reporting authority relationships is stored in different ones of the indexed tables; and

a charting tool configured to automatically generate at least one organization chart based upon information stored in the indexed tables, wherein said charting tool is also configured to create different views of the organization structure specified within the set of indexed tables, wherein selective ones of the different views hide at least one position included in the organization structure.

2. The software tool of claim 1, wherein the at least one hidden position is an intermediate position in a hierarchy that is the organization structure, wherein the generated organization chart is automatically collapsed so that child nodes of the hidden position are shown as being directly linked to a parent node of the hidden position.

3. The software tool of claim 2, wherein one of the different views having at least one hidden position comprises a filled position view, which hides those positions in the organization structure that have no assigned personnel.

4. The software tool of claim 2, wherein one of the fields linked to a position is a sensitivity field that indicates whether a field should be hidden for security reasons, wherein one of the different views having at least one hidden position comprises an unsecured view which hides those positions in the organization structure having a sensitivity level value that indicates the position is to he hidden.

5. The software tool of claim 2, wherein the generated organization chart is automatically constructed in a proportional manner as a minimal possible graphical representation without any manual reorganizations required by a user of the software tool.

6. The software tool of claim 1, wherein said indexed tables are tables of a relational database conforming to third normal form (3NF) comprising a position table, a resource table, a position reporting table, and an assignment table, wherein each unique position of the organization structure includes one record in the position table, wherein each unique resource of the organization structure includes one record in the resource table, and wherein a person is a resource for purposes of the resource table, wherein each unique reporting relationship among positions of the organization structure includes one record in the position reporting table, and wherein each assignment of a resource to a position includes one record in the assignment table.

7. The software tool of claim 6, wherein the assignments table and the position reporting table each have attributes for a start time and an end time, wherein the assignments table and the position table include records for historic assignments and reporting relationships as well as active assignments and reporting relationships.

8. The software tool of claim 1, further comprising;

an command system configured to manage a non-contiguous organization and details of an incident, said incident involving an organization having an organization structure that dynamically changes as situational factors of the incident changes, wherein the charting tool is configured to dynamically generate a current organization chart consistent with a current organization structure as specified by the command system responsive to a user request.

9. The software tool of claim 8, wherein at least one of the situational factors triggers a reporting structure change event, said event causing an automatic change in records stored in the indexed table containing records for reporting authority relationships, said automatic change causing said charting tool to alter a hierarchy of positions depicted in an organization chart generated after an occurrence of the reporting structure change event.

10. The software tool of claim 1, said software tool being integrated to a commercial off-the-shelf command management system, which is integrated with the database tables to ensure information consistency between the command management system and a structure and content of the database tables.

11. The software tool of claim 1, said software tool being integrated to a commercial off-the-shelf front-end charting application.

12. A method for charting an organization comprising:

identifying a set of database tables for an organization structure, said set of database tables including a position table, a position reporting table, a resource table, and an assignment table, wherein the position table comprises a unique record for each position within an organization structure, wherein the position reporting table comprises a unique record for each relationship among the positions of the table, wherein the resource table comprises a unique record for each resource capable of occupying a position, wherein the assignment table comprises a unique record for each resource/position assignment;

receiving a user request for an organization chart;

querying the set of database tables to generate an organization object;

converting the organization object into a graphical organization chart; and

presenting the graphical organization chart to a requestor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user requests a specific view for the organization chart, one possible view being a full view showing filled and unfilled positions, another possible view being a filled view showing only those positions that are filled, wherein die structure for the filled view has been collapsed to maintain authority relationships among positions while excluding unfilled intermediary positions in an organization hierarchy, wherein the presented graphical organization chart is consistent with the requested view.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of stored positions applicable to an organization structure corresponding to the organization chart for which the user request applies have a sensitivity attribute which hides the position from unauthorized users, said method further comprising;

determining a security level of a user making the user request; and

hiding at least one position of the organization structure based upon the sensitivity attribute of the at least one position and based upon the determined security level, wherein the presented organization chart has been collapsed to maintain authority relationships among positions while excluding hidden positions present in an organization hierarchy.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of database tables are in third normal form (3NF), and wherein the set of database tables store historical information regarding positions and assignments, said method further comprising:

integrating the set of database tables to an incident command system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the incident command system is a commercial off-the-shelf system, wherein the integrating step enhances the incident command system to add dynamic organization charting capabilities consistent with a non-contiguous organization structure that changes based upon situational factors managed by the incident command system.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

the incident command system determining an incident event; and

responsive to the incident event, automatically altering at least one of the structures of the set of database tables and content stored in records contained in the set of database tables.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an organization chart request from a commercial off-the-shelf application having an organization charting capability, wherein the received user request is the organization chart request;

formatting the organization object for compatibility with the commercial off-the-shelf application; and

conveying the organization object to the commercial off-the-shelf application which performs the converting and presenting steps.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein said steps of claim 12 are steps performed automatically by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine, said at least one computer program being stored in a machine readable medium.

20. An organizational management computing system comprising:

incident management software stored in a machine readable medium configured to include programmatic instructions directing at least one machine to centrally manage incidents involving at least one organization having an organization structure that dynamically varies as situation factors of a managed incident changes, said incident changes being recorded by the incident management system, which causes the incident management system to effect corresponding changes in the organization structure; and

a charting tool configured to dynamically generate organization charts depicting the organization structure at a user specifiable point in time based upon a set of indexed relational database tables containing records that together define the organization structure, wherein the relational database tables are arranged so that records unique to organizational positions are independent of a reporting relationship among positions, and wherein the relational database tables are arrange so that records unique to the organizational positions are independent of personnel assigned to the positions, wherein said charting tool is also configured to create different views of the organization structure, wherein selective ones of the different views hide at least one position included in the organization structure, wherein at least one hidden position is an intermediate position in a hierarchy that is the organization structure, wherein the generated organization chart that includes the hidden position is automatically collapsed so that child nodes of the hidden position are shown as being directly linked to a parent node of the hidden position.