Generating Task Flows for an Application

• US 20160062559A1
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Published: 03/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Armstrong, Andrew Alan, Pilot, Richard William
• Granted Patent: US 9,720,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method for generating task flows for an application. Actions of a user of an application are monitored and key actions carried out by the user in the application are logged. Based on a determined flow of key actions a task flow is formed. A representation of the task flow is stored for access by other users. The stored representation of a task flow is associated with a goal to be achieved in the application. Representations of task flows may be stored locally to the application for access by other users of the application or remotely stored with an indication of the application to which a task flow relates to provide access to the task flows by users of other applications. A list of stored representations of task flows may be provided to enable selection of a task flow.

Claims

1. A method for generating task flows for an application, the method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of actions taken within an application by a user;

logging one or more key actions from the plurality of actions carried out in the application;

determining a flow of the one or more key actions to form a task flow; and

storing a representation of the task flow for access by other users of the application.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically updating one or more stored task flows.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

weighting a task flow by a frequency of occurrence of the task flow or one or more similar task flows.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

associating the representation of the task flow with a goal to be achieved in the application.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the representation of the task flow is stored locally to the application.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

remotely storing the representation of the task flow with an indication of the application, wherein the representation of the task flow is accessible by other applications.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a selection list of one or more stored representations associated with one or more task flows; and

displaying a selected representation from the selection list of one or more stored representations to carry out the task flow.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

weighting the task flow by frequency of retrieval and usage of the task flow.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein determining the flow of one or more key actions to form a task flow further comprises:

determining an action of the plurality of actions that links the action of the plurality of actions to a previous action; and

determining an end action of the plurality of actions of the task flow.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein determining the flow of the one or more key actions to form the task flow further comprises:

determining an action of the plurality of actions of the task flow that links to another task flow.