Interface system and method of building rules and constraints for a resource scheduling system

• US 7,325,190 B1
• Filed: 10/02/2000
• Issued: 01/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Josefsberg, Gal, Boehmer, Tiffany D., Aoki, Gary Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashmore; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Quoc A.
• Application Number:
  US09/680,131
• Time in Patent Office: 2,675 Days
• Field of Search: 715/507, 715/505, 715/517, 715/503, 705/9, 705/8
• US Class Current: 715/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group

Abstract

The present invention is an interface system for interactively building rules and constraints. The interface system comprises of an output display configured to show a user a partial complete rule with a current rule fragment, such rule fragment comprising a blank space. The user can fill in the blank space by either choosing from a list or by typing in text in the blank space. After the blank space is filled, a completed rule is generated. The interface system then assigns this rule to one or more person in a resource scheduling system. The present invention can be used for agent scheduling in a call center environment.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having a computer program for optimizing a schedule for scheduling a plurality of agents within a call center, the program for performing the steps of:

generating an initial schedule for the plurality of agents within the call center according to at least one rule, comprising,

displaying a current rule fragment that is a portion of a completed rule used to generate the initial schedule for the plurality of agents within the call center;

accepting user input to create the completed rule from the rule fragment, wherein user input includes a selection from a displayed list, and a value directly entered by the user;

accepting a tolerance input by the user, wherein the tolerance is placed on the completed rule;

applying branching rules to previous user selections, such that future selection lists may be generated based on the previous user selections; and

converting the completed rule into an internal representation suitable for input into a resource scheduling system for generating the initial schedule;

removing a shift from the initial schedule, thereby creating a shift-reduced schedule, wherein the shift comprises at least one agent, at least one time slot, and at least one break offset value, wherein the initial and shift-reduced schedules comprise a plurality of shifts assigning the plurality of agents to time slots and to break offset values;

creating a plurality of first schedules for the plurality of agents within the call center, the plurality of first schedules including adding an array of different first shifts individually to the shift-reduced schedule, wherein the first shifts are break-unspecified shifts and have indeterminate break times;

evaluating a score function for each of the plurality of first schedules, wherein the first schedules have different first shifts added, wherein the different first shifts comprise all time slots in the schedule for which the plurality of agents can work;

selecting a second schedule from among the plurality of first schedules, wherein the second schedule is characterized by a value of the score function; and

scheduling the plurality of agents within the call center in accordance with the second schedule.

2. The program of claim 1, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises accessing a dynamic database to populate the displayed lists depending on current values in the dynamic database.

3. The program of claim 1, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises assigning the completed rule to at least one agent of the plurality of agents.

4. The program of claim 1 further comprising repeatedly removing, adding, evaluating, and selecting until a locally optimal schedule is obtained.

5. The program of claim of claim 1 further comprising:

generating at least one break-unspecified shift, including unscheduling at least one break to make the breaks indeterminate;

creating a plurality of first break times for each break-unspecified shift, including adding an array of different first break offset values

for each break-unspecified shift, evaluating a score function for each of the plurality of first break times; and

selecting a schedule having second break times from the first schedules having first break times, wherein the second break times are characterized by second scores.

6. The program of claim 5, wherein the plurality of predetermined values comprises four values corresponding to whether the interval in the first schedule corresponds to a first threshold of being understaffed, a second threshold of being understaffed, a first threshold of being overstaffed, or a second threshold of being overstaffed.

7. The program of claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the score function for the first schedule includes the calculation of a stochastic factor.

8. The program of claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the score function for the first schedule includes selecting one of a plurality of predetermined values corresponding to distinct staffing levels for an interval in the first schedule.

9. The program of claim 1, wherein the different first shifts further comprise a subset of the plurality of agents and all time slots in the schedule for which the subset of the plurality of agents can work.

10. A computer readable medium having a computer program for optimizing a schedule for scheduling a set of agents within a call center, the program for performing the steps of:

generating a preliminary schedule for the set of agents within the call center from an agent list, agent staffing requirements, and at least one rule specified by a user, including,

displaying a current rule fragment that is a portion of a completed rule used to generate the preliminary schedule for the set of agents within the call center;

accepting user input to create the completed rule from the rule fragment, wherein user input includes a selection from a displayed list, and a value directly entered by the user;

accepting a tolerance input by the user, wherein the tolerance is placed on the completed rule;

applying branching rules to previous user selections, such that future selection lists may be generated based on the previous user selections; and

converting the completed rule into an internal representation suitable for input into a resource scheduling system for generating the preliminary schedule, wherein the preliminary schedule comprises a plurality of shifts assigning the set of agents to slots and to break offset values;

removing from the preliminary schedule a first shift comprising a first agent of the set of agents;

responsive to removing the first shift from the preliminary schedule, generating a plurality of first schedules having zero or more different first shifts added, wherein the different first shifts comprise time slots in the plurality of first schedules for which the first agent can work, and wherein the different first shifts are break-unspecified shifts and have indeterminate break times;

evaluating a score function for each of the plurality of first schedules based on the indeterminate break times;

selecting a second schedule from among the plurality of first schedules, wherein the second schedule is characterized by a value of the score function; and

scheduling the set of agents in accordance with the second schedule.

11. The program of claim 10, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises accessing a dynamic database to populate the displayed lists depending on current values in the dynamic database.

12. The program of claim 10, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises assigning the completed rule to at least one agent of the set of agents.

13. The program of claim 10 further comprising removing from the preliminary schedule a second shift comprising a second agent, wherein the different first shifts comprise time slots in the plurality of first schedules for which the second agent can work, and scheduling the second agent.

14. A system for generating a schedule for a plurality of agents within a call center, comprising:

an interface system configured to generate at least one rule, the interface system comprising,

at least one display device configured to display a current rule fragment that is a portion of a completed used in generating a schedule for the plurality of gents within the call center,

at least one input device configured to receive user input to create the completed rule from the rule fragment, wherein user input includes,

a selection from a displayed list,

a value directly entered by a user,

at least one self-referential constraint imposed on the completed rule, wherein the at least one self-referential constraint is assignable to at least one agent of the plurality of agents to be scheduled within the call center; and

at least one self-referential tolerance imposed on the completed rule;

a processor configured to apply branching rules to previous user selections, such that future selection lists may be generated based on the previous user selections, and

a conversion processing element configured to convert the completed rule into an internal representation suitable for input into a resource scheduling system for generating an initial schedule for the plurality of agents within the call center; and

a resource scheduling system configured to generate an optimized schedule from the initial schedule, including,

removing a shift from the initial schedule, thereby creating a shift-reduced schedule, wherein the shift comprises at least one agent, at least one time slot, and at least one break offset value, wherein the schedule comprises a plurality of shifts assigning the at least one agent of the plurality of agents to time slots and to break offset values;

creating a plurality of first schedules for the plurality of agents, the plurality of first schedules including adding an array of different first shifts individually to the shift-reduced schedule, wherein the first shifts are break-unspecified shifts and have indeterminate break times;

evaluating a score function for each of the plurality of first schedules, wherein the first schedules have different first shifts added, wherein the different first shifts comprise all time slots in the schedule for which the agent can work;

selecting a second schedule from among the plurality of first schedules, wherein the second schedule is characterized by a value of the score function; and

scheduling the plurality of agents in accordance with the optimized schedule.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein interface system further comprises a dynamic database, wherein generating at least one rule further comprises accessing the dynamic database to populate the displayed lists depending on current values in the dynamic database.

16. A computer-readable medium, having instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause at least one processor to:

generate an initial schedule for agents within a call center according to at least one rule, comprising,

displaying a current rule fragment that is a portion of a completed rule used to generate the initial schedule for the agents within the call center;

accepting user input to create the completed rule from the rule fragment, wherein user input includes a selection from a displayed list, and a value directly entered by a user;

accepting a tolerance input by the user;

applying branching rules to previous user selections, such that future selection lists may be generated based on the previous user selections; and

converting the completed rule into an internal representation suitable for input into a resource scheduling system for generating the initial schedule;

remove a shift from the initial schedule, thereby creating a shift-reduced schedule, wherein the shift comprises at least one agent, at least one time slot, and at least one break offset value, wherein the schedule comprises a plurality of shifts assigning the agents to time slots and to break offset values;

create a plurality of first schedules for the agents within the call center, including adding an array of different first shifts individually to the shift-reduced schedule, wherein the first shifts are break-unspecified shifts and have indeterminate break times;

evaluate a score function for each of the plurality of first schedules, wherein the first schedules have different first shifts added, wherein the different first shifts comprise all time slots in the schedule for which the agent can work;

select a second schedule from among the plurality of first schedules, wherein the second schedule is characterized by a value of the score function; and

schedule the agents in accordance with the second schedule.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises accessing a dynamic database to populate the displayed lists depending on current values in the dynamic database.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein generating an initial schedule according to at least one rule further comprises assigning the completed rule to at least one agent of the plurality of agents.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising repeatedly removing, adding, evaluating, and selecting until a locally optimal schedule is obtained.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instruction, when executed, further cause the at least one processor to:

generate at least one break-unspecified shift, including unscheduling at least one break to make the breaks indeterminate;

create a plurality of first break times for each break-unspecified shift, including adding an array of different first break offset values

for each break-unspecified shift, evaluate a score function for each of the plurality of first break times; and

select a schedule having first break times from the first schedules having the first break times, wherein the second break times are characterized by second scores.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the plurality of predetermined values comprises four values corresponding to whether the interval in the first schedule corresponds to a first threshold of being understaffed, a second threshold of being understaffed, a first threshold of being overstaffed, or a second threshold of being overstaffed.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the evaluation of the score function for the first schedule includes the calculation of a stochastic factor.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the evaluation of the score function for the first schedule includes selecting one of a plurality of predetermined values corresponding to distinct staffing levels for an interval in the first schedule.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the different first shifts further comprise a subset of the at least one agent and all time slots in the schedule for which the subset of agents can work.