Method and system for work process support using independent system and user states

• US 6,421,700 B1
• Filed: 08/27/1999
• Issued: 07/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: McLean, Allan, Zbyslaw, Alex, Dourish, Paul, Holmes, James
• Primary Examiner(s): BANANKHAH, MAJID A
• Application Number:
  US09/091,366
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 709/100, 709/101, 709/102, 709/103, 709/104, 709/106, 709/107, 345/839, 345/772, 345/965, 399/82
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method supporting work processes involving activities such as generation, alteration and authentication of documents. For each activity, the relationship between that activity and each other activity is defined in terms of at least one dependency from a plurality of dependencies. Each activity has a plurality of possible independent user and system states, for example three for the user states and three for the system states. The independence of the user and system states improves flexibility by introducing a mechanism to support reasoning over the process flow, so that discrepancies can be used to maintain a record of any mismatch.

Claims

1. A method carried out in a data processing system for coordinating a process involving at least one activity, said at least one activity being performed by at least one user, comprising the steps of:

for said at least one activity,

assigning a system state from a plurality of possible system states, each system state corresponding to an activity-related condition of the system,

characterised by further including

providing means for storing a process model, the process model being a model of the process notionally defining the circumstances in which said at least one activity is performed; and

for said at least one activity,

assigning a user state from a plurality of possible user states, each user state being a state of the activity assigned in dependence upon a detected activity-related condition of the user,

wherein said system state is assigned in accordance with the process model, and the system state and the user state for the activity are independent.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of changing the system state of an activity in response to a change in a user state, or changing the user state of an activity in response to a change in a system state.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of assigning a user state, or the step of changing the user state, of an activity, is performed in response to a user input.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the system state of an activity is changed in accordance with the process model.

5. The method of claim 2, relating to at least a first and a second activity, wherein the step of changing the user state and/or system state of the second activity comprises changing said state when the user state and/or system state of the first activity satisfy a predetermined condition.

6. The method of claim 1, further including, for an activity, changing from one system state to another system state automatically upon said one system state being reached.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein there are three possible user states, and/or three possible system states.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of assigning a user state, or changing a user state, comprises, respectively, assigning to an activity, or changing a user state to (a) a first user state (Inactive) if no user is carrying out the activity, (b) a second user state (Active) if a user is working on the activity, or (c) a third user state (Ready) if a user has declared an activity completed,

and further wherein the step of assigning a system state, or changing a system state, comprises, respectively, assigning to an activity, or changing a system state to (d) a first system state (Disabled) if there are still conditions to be met before the activity can be started according to the predetermined model, (e) a second system state (Enabled) if all conditions have been met to allow the activity to be started, and/or (f) a third system state (Pending) if all conditions have been met to allow the activity to be finished.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the model defines changes in state of an activity in terms of at least a first dependency type and a second dependency type.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first and second dependency types have different strength attributes, said strength attributes defining the degree to which a corresponding dependency may be overridden.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the first (hard) dependency type is such that the change of user state requested by the user may not occur unless a predetermined set of states in another activity has been reached.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the second (soft) dependency type is such that the change of user state requested by the user may occur without a predetermined set of states in another activity having been reached, provided the interactor has received an input from the user indicating that such a change of user state may occur.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the first dependency type and/or the second dependency type is related to a designator of the user'"'"'s status.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the designator defines one of a plurality of possible skill levels, and wherein the interactor determines that the corresponding dependency may be overridden only if said one skill level is above a predetermined level.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising:

for said at least one activity, assigning a user state from one of a plurality of predetermined user states, assigning a system state from one of a plurality of predetermined system states, the system state and the user state being independent, and associating each system state so assigned with a plurality of assigned user states.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein each of the plurality of assigned user states comprises an assigned user state for said at least one user.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of assigned user states comprises a plurality of chronologically sequential user assigned user states, and may include the currently assigned user state.

18. A data processing system for coordinating a process involving at least one activity, said at least one activity being performed by at least one user, said system comprising:

means for assigning a system state from a plurality of possible system states for each activity of said at least one activity, each system state corresponding to an activity-related condition of the system,

means for storing a process model, the process model being a model of the process notionally defining the circumstances in which said at least one activity is performed; and

means for assigning a user state from a plurality of possible user states for each of said at least one activity, each user state being a state of the activity assigned in dependence upon a detected activity-related condition of the user,

wherein said system state is assigned in accordance with the process model, and the system state and the user state for the activity are independent.