Project work management method and system

• US 6,578,006 B1
• Filed: 04/15/1999
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Hattori, Yoshiaki, Shibuya, Ryoichi, Tsuji, Hiroshi, Saito, Takashi, Majima, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALLEN, AKIBA KANELLE
• Application Number:
  US09/291,945
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7-9, 707/10, 710/200, 714/15
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work

Abstract

A work management method and system which manage a project executed by individuals or groups belonging to an organization. In response to a phase transition request from a task management unit, a workflow management unit performs transition and activation of a business phase included in a process definition, sets a work in work management table, and issues a task addition request. In response to an event addition request or a deletion request, an event management unit adds or deletes events to or from an event queue, monitors an occurrence of the event and, when the event occurs, sends a task status transition request to the task management unit. In response to the task addition request, the task management unit sets a task name and a task status name in the work management table, generates the event associated with the task name, issues the event addition request. In response to the task status transition request described above, the task management unit sets the task status name, such as “execute” or “complete”, in a task status column according to the type of the event. When the event type is “execute”, the task management unit generates the event and issues the event addition request; when the event type is “complete”, the unit issues a request to delete the generated event. When the task status values of all tasks, including the task that has completed, of the business phase are “complete”, the task management unit issues the phase transition request.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a business process composed of a plurality of business phases using a computer, comprising:

holding process definition information defining an execution sequence of said plurality of business processes, and holding task definition information that is changeable by a user of each business phase in a task definition table defining a possible task which may be executed in a relevant business phase and whether to execute said task and which task in the task definition table is to be executed, for each of said plurality of business phases,

monitoring an execution state of a task being executed in an activated business phase; and

activating a business phase to be executed next to an activated business phase based on the execution state of a task obtained by said monitoring and said held task definition information even when all tasks in a task set for the activated business phase have not been completed for execution.

2. A method of implementing a business process according to claim 1, wherein

said monitoring step monitors whether the task has been completed or not; and

said activating step performs said activating in response to completion of a predetermined task defined by said task definition information.

3. A method of implementing a business process according to claim 2, wherein said monitoring step judges that a relevant task has been executed when electronic data created by said predetermined task has been stored in a predetermined memory.