SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING AUTOMATIC TASK ASSIGNMENT AND NOTIFICATION

• US 20090063242A1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shaouy, William P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,953,282 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 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

A system and method of managing and prioritizing tasks amongst resources and, more particularly, to a system and method for providing automatic task assignment and notification amongst globally dispersed human resources. The system includes a change of management application configured to store a list of tasks and a task notifier configured to retrieve a list of geographically-dispersed resources and notify selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources of a priority of completion of one or more tasks retrieved from the change of management application. The system further includes a message application configured to be polled by the task notifier to determine which of the geographically dispersed resources is at least one of online and currently working.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a change of management application configured to store a list of tasks;

a task notifier configured to retrieve a list of geographically-dispersed resources and notify selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources of a priority of completion of one or more tasks retrieved from the change of management application; and

a message application configured to be polled by the task notifier to determine which of the geographically dispersed resources is at least one of online and currently working.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographically-dispersed resources are provided in a resources table.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the message application is an instant message application polled through a web service interface.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the web service interface interfaces with the change of management application in order for the task notifier to communicate therewith.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is configured to match the one or more retrieved tasks amongst the geographically dispersed resources.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier includes a rules engine that uses programmable business logic to prioritize the one or more retrieved tasks and notify the selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources about newly assigned tasks.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier retrieves information from a task resource database which includes at least one of skills required for predetermined tasks and skills of any of the selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tasks table which is accessible by the task notifier, the task table includes at least one of a Task ID, Priority and Required Skills.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the Task ID is a pointer pointing to the change of management application, the Priority is an integer which designates a priority of the one or more retrieved task and the required skills include a set of skills, which are required for the one or more retrieved task.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a resources table which is accessible by the task notifier, the resources table includes at least one of names of the geographically dispersed resources, User ID, Application User ID and a list of skills of the selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein a low-priority thread of the task notifier uses an infinite loop to poll the change management application for a latest list of newly created or modified tasks which are yet to be started.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is configured to add information for any unstarted task that does not have a corresponding task in a tasks table.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider on a fee or subscription basis.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is in a form of an entirely hardware embodiment.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is in a form of an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the task notifier is configured to perform functions of a project manager.

17. A method for prioritizing tasks, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

store a list of tasks, geographically-dispersed resources and skills; and

retrieve the geographically-dispersed resources which match with the skills of retrieved tasks and notify selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources of a priority of completion of the retrieved tasks.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to poll a system to determine which of the geographically dispersed resources is at least one of online and currently working.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported by a service provider on a fee or subscription basis.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the steps of claim 17 are provided on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is in a form of an entirely hardware embodiment.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is in a form of an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to prioritize the retrieved tasks and notify the selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources about assigned tasks which matches with their skill set.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to retrieve information from a task resource database which includes at least one of skills required for predetermined tasks and skills of the selected ones of the geographically-dispersed resources.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to use a low-priority thread which uses an infinite loop to poll for a latest list of newly created or modified tasks which are yet to be started.

26. A method comprising:

polling a list of geographically dispersed resources to determine which geographically dispersed resources are online and/or currently working; and

retrieving a latest list of tasks whose required skills is not null and prioritizing each of the retrieved tasks for selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising comparing the required skills to a set of skills of the selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources and matching the selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources to the tasks when the required skills is a subset of the set of skills.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising prioritizing a new task or tasks assigned to the selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources with a current task.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising notifying the selected ones of the geographically dispersed resources of a newly assigned task and its priority.

30. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

store a list of tasks, geographically-dispersed resources and skills; and

retrieve a list of geographically-dispersed resources which match with the skills of retrieved tasks and notify the geographically-dispersed resources of a priority of completion of the retrieved tasks.