Multilevel Assignment of Jobs and Tasks in Online Work Management System

• US 20090204470A1
• Filed: 02/10/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearshift Corporation
• Original Assignee: Clearshift Corporation
• Inventors: Krishnan, Rajesh, Weyl, Stephen, Elenbaas, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,395,187 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

An online work management system provides a marketplace for multiple job owner and workers. The job owners provide a job description that defines task. The job description may be processed to generate task descriptions that may be published for workers'"'"' application. The task descriptions specify the qualification or restrictions for workers to have the task assigned. The online work management system also provides various functions supporting coordination and management of task assignment such as determining the trust level of the user'"'"'s identity, search the tasks or workers, monitoring the progress of job, managing payment to workers, training and testing the workers, evaluating the review by the job owners, and generation of surveys.

Claims

1. A method for managing a job in an online work management system accessible to a plurality of users by one or more user terminals, the method comprising:

receiving a job description defining a job, the job comprising at least one task;

generating a task description defining the task based on the job description;

assigning the task to a first user based on the task description, wherein at least part of the task is assigned to a second user by the online work management system; and

sending assignment information indicating assigning of the task to the first user for display on at least one of the user terminals.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a task description from the first user defining the task, the task including at least a first subtask;

generating a subtask description defining the subtask based on the task description; and

assigning the subtask to the second user based on the subtask description.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the task further includes a second subtask performed by the first user.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

publishing the subtask description responsive to assigning the task to the first user;

receiving applications from a group of users for the subtask responsive to publishing the subtask description; and

receiving selection of the second user from the group of users responsive to receiving the applications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user is anonymized so that an identity of the first user is not revealed to a job owner assigning the task to the first user.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the job owner and the first user are members of a same organization.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving applications for the task from a first set of users for a predetermined amount of time; and

receiving applications for the task from a second set of users after the predetermined amount of time passed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing an information source external to the online work management system to search for workers qualified for the subtask; and

selecting the second user from the workers searched from the external information source.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the external information source includes a database of state employment office.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a training program associated with the subtask from the first user, the training program accessed by the second user to perform the subtask.

11. A computer-implemented online work management system accessible to a plurality of users for managing a job, the system comprising:

a workflow engine adapted to generate a task description based on a job description defining a job including at least one task defined by the task description, the workflow engine configured to assign the task to a first user based on the task description; and

an intermediator support module adapted to assign at least part of the task to a second user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the intermediator support module is further configured to generate a subtask description defining the subtask based on a task description received from the first user, and the workflow engine further configured to assigning the subtask to the second user based on the subtask description.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the task further comprises a second subtask performed by the first user.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the workflow engine is configured to:

publish the subtask description responsive to assigning the task to the first user,

receive applications from a group of users for the subtask responsive to publishing the subtask description; and

receive selection of the second user from the group of users responsive to receiving the applications.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first user is anonymized so that an identity of the first user is not revealed to a job owner assigning the task to the first user.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the job owner and the first user are members of a same organization.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the workflow engine is further configured to:

receive applications for the task from a first set of users for a predetermined amount of time; and

receive applications for the task from a second set of users after the predetermined amount of time passed.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the intermediator support module is further configured to access an information source external to the online work management system to search for workers qualified for the subtask, and select the second user from the workers searched from the external information source.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the external information source includes a database of state employment office.

20. The system of claim 11, further comprising a training and testing module configured to generate a training program associated with the subtask, the training program accessed by the second user to perform the subtask.