Work allocation system

• US 7,451,449 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2002
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Thompson, Simon G, Kearney, Paul J, Stark, Thomas J
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): WU, QING YUAN
• Application Number:
  US10/471,412
• Publication Number:
  US 20040088206A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,433 Days
• Field of Search: 718/100, 718/102, 718/104, 707/7, 709/223, 709/226, 705/7, 705/8
• US Class Current: 718/104
• 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 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A work allocation system has a plurality of agents that bid for work in accordance with preferences and behavior of corresponding resources. Each agent represents a group of resources and is arranged to evaluate the likelihood that at least one resource in the group can carry out a work item. The evaluation is dependent on work items previously selected and/or carried out by the resource, so that the agent effectively models the preferences of its workers. The agent can use this preference information to decide a bidding strategy (i.e. to decide which work items it can bid for), and, having successfully bid for a work item, can allocate work based on individual characteristics and observed work preferences. The bidding for work between agents is, for example, conducted in accordance with contract net based negotiation.

Claims

1. A method of operating a work allocation system for allocating work items to worker resources including a plurality of groups of worker resources, each group comprising a plurality of individual worker resources, said work allocation system comprising a work allocation server;

a group terminal for each group; and

a communication link between said work allocation server and each group terminal, said method of operation comprising;

storing in a group store, for each group of worker resources, a data structure identifying attributes of work items previously allocated to at least some of the worker resources in the group;

adding or removing from said data structure contributions from work items previously allocated to an individual worker resource when said individual worker resource respectively joins or leaves a group;

operating said work allocation server to send one or more offers of work items to each said group terminal via said communications link;

operating a group terminal for each group to;

i) receive an offer of a work item for the group, said offer including attributes of said work item;

ii) retrieve at least data relevant to said offer from said group store for the group;

iii) using at least one of said attributes of said work item to compare said work item with the data structure to evaluate the probability that one of the worker resources in the group will carry out the work item;

iv) compare the evaluated probability with a suitability criterion so as to identify whether one of the worker resources in said workgroup is suitable to carry out the work item;

v) generate a bid for said work item in response to said offer on finding that at least one of said worker resources is suitable to carry out the work item; and

vi) send said generated bid to said work allocation server via said communications link.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein, if one of the worker resources in the group is identified as being suitable to carry out the work item, the method further includes evaluating a price to bid for the work item.

3. A method according to claim 1, in which the evaluating step includes evaluating posterior probabilities of a worker resource being capable of carrying out the work item on the basis of data indicative of previous work items carried out by a worker resource.

4. A method according to claim 1 further comprising generating said work allocation server to:

offer the work item to a plurality of groups;

receive a plurality of bids from respective group terminals;

select one of the bids in accordance with selection criteria and allocate the work item to the group corresponding to the selected bid.

5. A method according to claim 4, in which the step of offering the work item includes evaluating a price for the work item on the basis of urgency associated therewith.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein:

said offer includes values of attributes of said work item; and

said data structure comprises a summary of previous allocation decisions made on behalf of the group broken down by each attribute of the work items and by the outcome of the decision whether to bid for the work item and worker summaries also broken down by outcome and each attribute.

7. A method according to claim 6, further including operating said group terminal to receive a signal identifying that the bid has been successful;

for at least some of the worker resources, evaluate a similarity between the work items and work items previously allocated thereto;

select at least one worker resource on the basis of the similarity;

for each selected worker resource, apply a price to the work item proportionate to the similarity; and

offer the work item to the selected worker resources at the respective applied price.

8. A work allocation system for allocating work items to worker resources including a plurality of groups of worker resources, said allocation system comprising:

a group store for each group of worker resources, each group comprising a plurality of individual worker resources, said store storing a data structure comprising values corresponding both to attributes of the worker resources in the group and attributes of work items previously allocated to at least some of the worker resources in the group;

an interface enabling the addition to or removal from said data structure contributions from work items previously allocated to an individual worker resource when said individual worker resource respectively joins or leaves a group;

a work allocation server;

a group terminal for each group;

a communication link between said work allocation server and said group terminal for each group, each of said group terminals being arranged in operation to;

i) receive an offer of a work item for the group from said work allocation server via said communications link, said offer including attributes of said work item;

ii) retrieve at least data relevant to said offer from said group store for the group;

iii) using at least one of said attributes of said work item to compare said work item with the data structure to evaluate the probability that one of the worker resources in the group will carry out the work item based on said offer and said relevant data;

iv) compare the evaluated probability with a suitability criterion so as to identify whether one of the worker resources in said workgroup is suitable to carry out the work item;

v) generate a bid for said work item in response to said offer on finding that at least one of said worker resources is suitable to carry out the work item; and

vi) send said generated bid to said work allocation server via said communications link.

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said group terminal is further arranged in operation to evaluate a price to bid for the work item and to signal the priced bid to the work allocation server.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein, on receipt of a signal identifying that the bid has been successful, is each group terminal is further arranged in operation to:

evaluate for at least some of the worker resources the similarity between the work item and work items previously allocated to the worker resource;

select at least one worker resource on the basis of the similarity;

apply a price to the work item proportionate to the similarity; and

offer the work item to the selected worker resources at the respective applied price.

11. A system according to claim 8 wherein:

said offer includes values of attributes of said work item; and

said data structure comprises a summary of previous allocation decisions made on behalf of the group broken down by each attribute of the work items and by the outcome of the decision whether to bid for the work item and worker summaries also broken down by outcome and each attribute.