System and method for documenting delays associated with a project

• US 7,539,626 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mills, Jr., Ralph J., Smith, Steven G., Davis, Mitchell E., Glascoe, Jr., Roy Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Sterrett, Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US11/609,417
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8
• US Class Current: 705/7.23
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• 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 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method for documenting delays associated with a project. The present invention includes provisions that enable a field personnel working on a project on the field to document excusable delays as the delays are encountered. The field personnel is equipped with a communications device that has access to a server. During a communications session between the communications device and the server, the field personnel uses the communications device to upload project information related to the delays to the server. The server then invokes or updates a DMT to document the time associated with the delays. The delay time documented in the DMT is then subtracted from a total time reported by a maintenance clock associated with the project.

Claims

1. A system for documenting delays comprising:

a communications device operable by a user, wherein the communications device is adapted to;

receive from the user project information related to a delay associated with a project, wherein the reason for delay includes at least one of adverse weather conditions, lack of equipment, lack of technical expertise, customer postponement;

customer is unavailable to accept restoration of service until all repairs are completed, and circuit verification is required by customer,

receive a selection of an option from a user interface to display a delay maintenance timer entry page where the project information related to the delay is entered and,

receive user log in information to create a communication session and to upload the project information related to the delay during the communication session;

a server accessible by the communications device via a communications network during the communications session to receive the project information from the communications device, wherein the project information includes at least a duration and a classification of an excusable delay, wherein further an excusable delay comprises at last one of adverse weather conditions, customer postponement, customer is unavailable to accept restoration of service until all repairs are completed, and circuit verification is required by customer;

an elapsed time clock in communication with the server, wherein the elapsed time clock measures the total elapsed time from initiation to completion of the project;

a delay maintenance timer in communication with the server, wherein the delay maintenance timer aggregates all excusable delays encountered during the project in response to invocation by the server;

a systems interface coupled to the server, wherein the systems interface is adapted to facilitate uploading of the project information from the communications device to the server during the communications session, wherein the server is further adapted to invoke the delay maintenance timer by submitting the project information related to the delay maintenance timer, wherein further at the completion of the project the server subtracts the aggregated excusable delay on the delay maintenance timer from the total elapsed time to determine a discounted project time, wherein the discounted project time is compared to a service installation guarantee threshold to determine if the project was completed within the service installation guarantee threshold; and

a maintenance clock that keeps an overall time associated with the project, wherein the amount of delay time is discounted from the overall time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein one or both of the delay maintenance timer and the maintenance clock are associated with a legacy system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the legacy system is a work force administration system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the systems interface has provisions to determine whether the user is an authorized user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the project information includes at least one of a reason for the delay, a name of a person authorizing invocation of the delay maintenance timer and a date and time an agreement was reached with the customer.

6. A method for documenting delays comprising:

initializing a maintenance clock upon commencement of a project, wherein the maintenance clock continuously accumulates an overall project time from a commencement to a closeout of the project;

dispatching a service person to a field location of the project;

while in the field, receiving an option from a user interface of a communications device to display a delay maintenance timer entry page where project information related to an encountered delay is entered, wherein the communications device receives user log information to create a communication session and uploads the project information related to the encountered delay during the communication session;

receiving the project information related to the encountered delay from the communications device at the field location;

establishing the communications session with a server by launching the user interface in response to a selection of an icon on the communication device that represents the option;

invoking, by the server, a delay maintenance timer that is in communication with the server for encountered delays that are excusable by submitting the project information;

aggregating excusable delay encountered during the project at the delay maintenance timer in response to invocation by the server;

subtracting the amount of excusable delay time from the overall project time to determine the discounted project time; and

comparing the discounted project time to a service installation guarantee threshold to determine if the project was completed within the service installation guarantee threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the project information related to the delay comprises one or more of a name of a person authorizing the amount of delay time;

a customer name;

a telephone number of the customer;

a reason for the delay;

a date and time the agreement was reached with the customer;

a return date and time on which performance of the task should be resumed; and

comments.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein inputting the project information includes a user interface, wherein the user interface has dedicated fields to received various components of the project information.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the delay maintenance timer is resident at a legacy system.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein subtracting the amount of delay time from the overall project time is performed by a legacy system that hosts the maintenance clock.

11. A method for documenting justifiable delay time associated with a project having a service installation guarantee threshold comprising:

initializing a maintenance clock upon commencement of the project, wherein the maintenance clock continuously accumulates an overall project time from the commencement to a closeout of the project;

dispatching a person to a field location associated with the project;

encountering a delay at the field location which is justifiable;

gathering project information associated with the delay at the field location;

determining whether the delay is a justifiable based on a set of established rules, wherein the justifiable delay is a reason for delay caused by the customer;

if the delay is justifiable then;

receiving justifiable delay information from a communications device at the field location;

establishing a communications session with a server via the communications device;

uploading the project information from the communications device to the server;

updating a delay maintenance timer by the server with an amount of justifiable delay time derived from the project information; and

subtracting the amount of justifiable delay time from the overall project time at the closeout of project to determine a discounted project time, wherein the discounted project time is compared to the service installation guarantee threshold to determine if the project was completed within the service installation guarantee threshold.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the project is a task regulated by a governmental agency.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the established rules include imposition of a fine if the overall project time exceeds a threshold.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the established rules are service installation guarantee rules.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the delay maintenance timer resides at a legacy system that hosts the maintenance clock.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the delay maintenance timer resides at the server.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the maintenance clock is a component of a Work Force Administration-Control system.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein a justifiable delay includes at least one of adverse weather conditions, lack of equipment, lack of technical expertise, customer postponement;

customer is unavailable to accept restoration of service until all repairs are completed, and circuit verification is required by customer, the user selecting an option from a user interface to display a delay maintenance timer entry page where the project information related to the delay is entered; and

wherein the communications device receives user log in information to create a communication session and to upload the project information related to the delay during the communication session.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the project information related to the delay comprises one or more of a name of a person authorizing the amount of delay time, a customer name, a telephone number of the customer, a reason for the delay, a date and time the agreement was reached with the customer, a return date and time on which performance of the task should be resumed, and comments.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the legacy system comprises at least one of a loop facility assignment control system, a loop maintenance operations system, a secure network element contract server, a mechanized time reporting system a work activity statistical sampling system and a computer system for mainframe operations.