INTERACTIVE VOICE CONTROLLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20080033994A1
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharma, Rajesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,147 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A method for facilitating project management includes identifying a user, identifying a project management access level for the user, dynamically generating a voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, dynamically generating grammars associated with the voice dialog based on the identified project management access level, and serving the voice dialog to the user. The method further includes receiving a voice request from the user corresponding to a generated grammar; retrieving project management information associated with the received voice request; dynamically generating a responsive voice dialog including the retrieved project management information; dynamically generating responsive grammars associated with the responsive voice dialog; and serving the responsive voice dialog to the user.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating project management, comprising:

identifying a user;

identifying a project management access level for the user;

dynamically generating a voice dialog based on the identified project management access level;

dynamically generating grammars associated with the voice dialog based on the identified project management access level;

serving the voice dialog to the user;

receiving a voice request from the user corresponding to a generated grammar;

retrieving project management information associated with the received voice request;

dynamically generating a responsive voice dialog including the retrieved project management information;

dynamically generating responsive grammars associated with the responsive voice dialog; and

serving the responsive voice dialog to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the user further comprises:

receiving a spoken utterance from the user;

determining whether the spoken utterance matches information included in a database; and

authenticating the user when the spoken utterance matches the information included in the database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information included in the database comprises biometric information associated with the user, and wherein the determining whether the spoken utterance matches information included in the database, further comprises:

determining whether biometric information associated with the spoken utterance matches the biometric information associated with the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the information included in the database is a personal identification number associated with the user, the method further comprising:

recognizing a content of the spoken utterance; and

determining whether the recognized content matches the personal identification number associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the information included in the database is a personal identification number associated with the user, the method further comprising:

recognizing user keypad entries; and

determining whether the recognized keypad entries matches the personal identification number associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a project management access level for the user further comprises:

identifying a project associated with the user,

retrieving project information associated with the identified project; and

determining a role associated with the user based on the retrieved project information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a voice request from the user to call a project participant;

retrieving contact information associated with the project participant; and

initiating a call between the user and the project participant.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the voice request to call the project participant designates an identity of the project participant by the project participant'"'"'s role in the project.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a voice request to modify a project;

determining whether the identified project management access level permits the requested modification; and

updating the project management information when the identified project management access level permits the requested modification.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a voice request from the user to contact another project participant; and

initiating a telephone call between the user and the requested project participant.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the project management IVR system further comprises:

a user verification service configured to authenticate a user'"'"'s identity; and

a user role and accessibility service configured to identifying a user'"'"'s project management access level for authenticated users.

11. An interactive voice controlled project management system, comprising:

a project management interactive voice response (IVR) system operatively connected to a plurality of user telephony devices via a telephony network;

project management tools configured to perform project management functions; and

a database operatively connected to the project management tools and configured to store project management information managed by the project management tools,

wherein the project management IVR system is operatively connected to the database and configured to provide the stored project management information to users via the telephony network.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the project management tools comprise at least one of project management web-based applications, project management client/server applications, project management stand alone applications, or project management query-based applications.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the project management IVR system further comprises:

a voice dialog generation and deployment service configured to dynamically generate interactive voice dialogs for play to users, wherein the content of the dynamically generated interactive voice dialogs is based on received user requests and the stored project management information.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the voice dialog generation and deployment service is configured to:

dynamically generate Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) documents and associated grammars,

publish the generated documents, and

deploy the published documents to the user.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the project management IVR system further comprises:

a speech recognition service configured to receive and recognize user responses to the provide project management information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the speech recognition service is further configured to:

determine whether a voice response includes a request for project management information modification;

determine whether the user is authorized to perform the requested modification; and

modifying the project management information stored on the database when the user is authorized to perform the requested modification.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the speech recognition service is further configured to:

determine whether a voice response includes a request for additional project management information; and

forward the request to the voice dialog generation and deployment service to dynamically generate another interactive voice dialog based on the request.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the speech recognition service is further configured to:

determine whether a voice response includes a request for a telephone call to another project participant; and

initiate a telephone call between the user and the requested project participant.

20. A method for enabling project management notifications, comprising:

monitoring project management information for notification triggering events;

retrieving project management information from a database in the event of a notification triggering event, wherein the retrieved project information includes contact information for a user to be notified; and

initiating a call to the user to notify the user of the occurrence of the triggering event.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the triggering event includes a project having a critical state.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising;

authenticating a user upon pickup of the call.