METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DESIGNING A WORKFLOW PROCESS USING INHERITANCE

• US 20070136357A1
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintex USA LLC (The Nintex Group Pty Limited)
• Original Assignee: SourceCode Technology Holdings, Inc. (Nintex Global Ltd.)
• Inventors: du Toit, Wynand, de Jager, Schalk, Raath, Natachya, Janson, Pieter, Fourie, Ben, le Roux, Lenz, Wagner, Olaf, van Wyk, Adriaan
• Granted Patent: US 8,010,940 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The disclosed system empowers technical and non technical users to author logical business objects, author intelligent business forms, and create automated workflows. The logical business objects include data definitions and methods from existing and new data sources. An object broker interprets the business object definition and brokers data/information and method calls to the data sources. The intelligent business forms are created by an information worker in a rich web-based tooling environment. Each form is intelligent enough to recognize other forms that it might co-exist with on a single page, as well as how to react based on events that occur on these related forms. The automated workflow tools include process discovery features that assist users during the process identification phase. The tools assist both technical and non technical users to identify processes within the organization, including supporting solution artifacts such as forms, rules, actions, outcomes and business objects involved. Process modeling features include the ability to combine defined artifacts into a process model that can be published into a runtime environment where it can be executed and used by business users in the organization.

Claims

1. A method of designing a workflow process, the method comprising:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and

creating a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

2. The method of claim 1, including adding a local property to the first child object by at least one of (i) modifying a first global property in the plurality of global properties, and (ii) creating a new property.

3. The method of claim 2, including applying a change to a second global property in the plurality of global properties to a plurality of instances of the second global property in a plurality of child objects to the parent object.

4. The method of claim 2, including applying a change to the local property only to the local property.

5. The method of claim 1, including locking a subset of the process map from changes by at least one predetermined user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein locking the subset of the process map from changes by the at least one predetermined user includes determining the at least one predetermined user based on a role associated with the at least one predetermined user.

7. The method of claim 1, including:

sharing at least a portion of the process map with a second different client device via a network;

exchanging messages associated with the portion of the process map between the first client device and the second client device; and

storing data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the process map.

8. The method of claim 1, including displaying a setup sequence associated with the process map by:

displaying a plurality of thumbnail images in a first area of a display, each of the thumbnail images representing a step in the setup sequence;

displaying a full image in a second area of the display, the full image representing one of the steps in the setup sequence;

detecting a first event associated with a thumbnail image in the plurality of thumbnail images; and

displaying a popup image in response to detecting the first event, the popup image being a larger version of the thumbnail image associated with the first event.

9. The method of claim 1, including displaying a setup sequence associated with the process map by:

displaying a graphical object indicative of a step in the process map;

detecting an event associated with the graphical object;

displaying an animation of the graphical object rotating in three dimensions in response to detecting the event associated with the graphical object;

displaying a setup sequence associated with the step in the process map; and

receiving configuration parameters associated with the step in the process map.

10. A computer readable medium storing instructions for designing a workflow process, the instructions to cause a computing device to:

place a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step;

connect the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and

create a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to add a local property to the first child object by at least one of (i) modifying a first global property in the plurality of global properties, and (ii) creating a new property.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to apply a change to a second global property in the plurality of global properties to a plurality of instances of the second global property in a plurality of child objects to the parent object.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to lock a subset of the process map from changes by at least one predetermined user.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein locking the subset of the process map from changes by the at least one predetermined user includes determining the at least one predetermined user based on a role associated with the at least one predetermined user.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions are structured to cause the computing device to:

share at least a portion of the process map with a second different client device via a network;

exchange messages associated with the portion of the process map between the first client device and the second client device; and

store data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the process map.

16. A computing device for designing a workflow process, the computing device:

placing a first object and a second object on a first computer based design canvas to create a process map, the first object being indicative of a first process step, the second object being indicative of a second process step;

connecting the first object to the second object with an arrow, the arrow being indicative of a progression from the first process step to the second process step; and

creating a third object and a fourth object, the third object and the fourth object each being indicative of the first process step, the first object representing a parent object, the third object representing a first child object to the parent object, the fourth object representing a second different child object to the parent object, wherein the parent object includes a plurality of global properties and the first child object inherits a subset of the global properties.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the computing device adds a local property to the first child object by at least one of (i) modifying a first global property in the plurality of global properties, and (ii) creating a new property.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the computing device applies a change to a second global property in the plurality of global properties to a plurality of instances of the second global property in a plurality of child objects to the parent object.

19. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the computing device locks a subset of the process map from changes by at least one predetermined user.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein locking the subset of the process map from changes by the at least one predetermined user includes determining the at least one predetermined user based on a role associated with the at least one predetermined user.

21. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the computing device:

shares at least a portion of the process map with a second different client device via a network;

exchanges messages associated with the portion of the process map between the first client device and the second client device; and

stores data indicative of the messages in association with storing data indicative of the process map.