System and method for automatic task prioritization

• US 6,408,277 B1
• Filed: 06/21/2000
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Banter Limited
• Inventors: Nelken, Yoram
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NORMAN, MARC E
• Application Number:
  US09/602,588
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/8, 705/9, 709/100, 709/102, 709/103
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

Abstract

A system and method for automatic task prioritization comprises one or more task queues, a monitoring module, and a decision engine. The decision engine receives tasks and assigns a priority code to each task. Each task is inserted into one of the task queues according to its priority code and the priority codes of other tasks which may be present in the task queues. Agents select tasks to perform from the task queue according to priority guidelines established by a system user. The monitoring module may monitor the order of the tasks selected by the agents and each task'"'"'s priority code. The monitoring module feeds this information back to the decision module. In one embodiment, the decision module is a learning system that updates stored data using feedback from the monitoring module to determine priority of each task.

Claims

1. A system for automatic task prioritization, comprising:

a decision engine configured to receive tasks and to determine a priority of each task;

at least one task queue configured to store said prioritized tasks in order of priority; and

a monitoring module configured to monitor tasks selected from said task queue by at least one agent and to forward said selected tasks and a priority code associated with each selected task as feedback to said decision engine such that said decision engine uses said feedback to update priority criteria, which include rules for prioritizing the tasks.