JP2000207474A - Workflow support execution system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a workflow support execution system capable of accelerating a development speed by simplifying the preparation of workflow process and also easily performing the construction and reconstruction of a workflow system by facilitating the updating and new incorporation of a business application and a business database. SOLUTION: This workflow support execution system is provided with a server machine 1 consisting of a workflow preparation managing part 3 which prepares workflow constructed by sequentially linking and arranging job function blocks formed by defining the attribute information of a unit job and integratedly manages them in a computer network, a workflow controlling part 4 and a flow control database 2, and is also provided with terminal machines C1,..., Cn which issue a task execution instruction related to the woekflow and business execution terminals T0, T1,..., Tn in which a job database A0, job applications A1,..., An and application controlling means B0, B1,..., Bn controlling them are incorporated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a workflow system for efficiently creating a series of work flows (workflow) and executing the work using a computer network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A workflow is also called a business procedure and means a processing flow of a business in a company. In recent years, LAN (Lo
Many workflow software for coordinating a series of operations through a network such as a cal area network have been developed. A workflow system using this type of software allows individual tasks such as sales management, inventory management, accounting management, sending materials, circulating documents, and approving a request for settlement to be processed by an application program. Is transferred through a network according to a predefined process, and the work is performed in cooperation. The progress status is centrally managed by the workflow software, and electronic data is transmitted and received through a network, so that processing time can be reduced and business management can be made more efficient. In recent years, with the increase in the amount of transmission in the network, the increase in transmission speed, and the improvement in the processing capacity of each terminal, business applications processed on a terminal-by-terminal basis have been enriched. With increasing speed and complexity, it has become important to automatically manage the business process using workflow software.

[0003] As an existing workflow system, a magazine "NIKKEI OPENSYSTEMS, n
o. 15 (June 1994) ", a workflow creation function with a graphical user interface, a conditional branching function according to data contents, a simultaneous parallel processing function for simultaneously managing a plurality of workflows, Synchronization function for synchronizing and joining workflows, deadline setting function to set processing details when processing dwell time exceeds the upper limit, tracking function to track and display the processing status of workflow, statistics such as the number of processing and dwell time Some have a statistics / audit function for finding the bottleneck of the system by calculating the system.

[0004]

However, the existing workflow system has a problem that the number of development steps increases as more functions are provided, and the development cost increases.
Further, as the system becomes more complicated, the following problems (1) to (3) occur.

(1) To construct a workflow process,
First of all, it is necessary to analyze the work, investigate the work content and the opinion of the work in charge of each person in charge, grasp the work flow, and reflect the result in the workflow system. Requires energy. (2) Unit work required by such work is extracted, and a business application and a business database necessary for performing each unit work are prepared and incorporated into the workflow system. When the business database is updated or newly incorporated, it is necessary to reconstruct the workflow system. However, this reconstruction required a great deal of time and cost. (3) Also, since the workflow is rarely disclosed to the outside as the know-how of the company and changes every moment, the company can flexibly cope with the change, and the company independently creates and updates the workflow. There is a need for a system that can easily do this.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems and the like, and can simplify the creation of a workflow process to speed up the development speed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a workflow support execution system that can easily reconfigure a workflow system.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a workflow system of the present invention supports creation of a workflow consisting of a series of tasks in a computer network formed by connecting a plurality of computers to a network. A workflow support execution system for executing the work of the workflow, wherein the business execution modules for executing the unit work are distributed and arranged in a plurality of computers on a computer network, An application control means for transferring data between the execution module and the network is provided. At least one computer on the computer network has a business function block, which defines attribute information of a unit business, arranged in a time-series manner in a cooperative manner. Composed A workflow creation management unit that creates and integrates and manages a workflow, and transmits a task execution command to a task execution terminal incorporating a task execution module, receives the execution result of the task execution module, and transmits the result to the next task function block. It is characterized by comprising a workflow control unit that shifts to processing, and a flow control database that stores the correspondence between the business function blocks, their attribute information, and workflows.

Further, the application control means can execute a business application incorporated in a computer on a network or a business execution module included in a business database, and obtain the execution result.

The workflow creation management unit includes a data definition unit for defining a type of data to be transferred between business function blocks to define the attribute information, and a participating user for each workflow or business function block. User definition means for defining a task or a group, flow definition means for defining a cooperation condition between business function blocks, and flow display means for visually expressing a workflow and displaying attribute information of each business function block. It is preferable to be constituted.

It is preferable that such a workflow support execution system is provided with a user authentication unit for referring to or updating the attribute information of the business function block from the viewpoint of improving security.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a workflow support execution system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a workflow support execution system according to the present invention. The execution environment of the workflow support execution system according to the present embodiment includes a server device 1, ordinary terminals C1,..., Cn, a terminal T0 incorporating a business database A0 for storing information on business, a word processor and a spreadsheet. ,
Business application A such as estimate calculation application
The terminals T1,..., Tn incorporating the An,..., An are connected to a computer network. A known computer may be used for the server and the terminal, and is not limited to the type of OS (Operating System) or the type of platform. A transmission medium such as Ethernet can be used for the computer network.

In such an environment, the workflow support execution system according to the present embodiment includes a flow control database 2, a workflow creation management unit 3, and a workflow control unit 4 incorporated in a server machine 1, and terminals T0, T1,
, Bn and application programs A1,..., An including a plurality of application modules.
And an application control means B0 and a business database A0 incorporated in the terminal T0.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the server machine 1 will be described.

The workflow creation management section 3 creates a workflow and integrally manages the workflow. The workflow creation management unit 3 visually represents the workflow, and displays flow information and the like of attribute information of each business function block, progress of a series of business, and the like, and data transmitted and received between such business function blocks. (Less than,
Called "application data". ), A user definition unit 3c for defining participating users and groups for each workflow or business function block, a flow definition unit 3d for defining cooperation conditions between business function blocks, And a system management means 3e for monitoring the processing status of the job.

In the workflow, as shown in FIG. 2, a start block and an end block are required as essential business function blocks,
The processing function blocks of processing block 1, processing block 2,..., Processing block n are cooperatively arranged between the start block and the end block. Such processing blocks, when the processing comes around, notify the person in charge of the unit work by transmitting it, prompting the processing, automatically performing the business processing without notifying the person in charge, or performing conditional branch processing. Go. Each of the processing blocks 1,..., And processing block n is associated with a unit task and its attribute information, and is tabulated in the flow control database 2. The attribute information includes “application data”, “participating member group” of the processing block, “business execution terminal” (such as a network address of a terminal) for actually executing a business, and reference / change of application data. “Permission / non-permission information”, “administrator” of the processing block, “access right information”, and the like. The application data in these pieces of attribute information is transferred when the processing shifts from block to block.

Processing blocks 2 and 3 shown in FIG. 1 are blocks for selecting a processing path in accordance with a predetermined branch condition (hereinafter, referred to as a branch block).
The processing block 2 and the processing block 3 are provided with two paths for transferring the processing to the next block, and the branch condition can be defined as attribute information of the processing block.

Such a workflow is created by the workflow creation management section 3. Actually, a new business function block is created / added by using a pointing device such as a mouse or a user interface unit such as a keyboard while being displayed by the flow display unit 3a.
It is possible to change and add attribute information and to redefine the linkage between business function blocks. The attribute information created, changed, added, redefined, etc. in this way is added to a table indicating the correspondence with the business function block,
It is stored in the flow control database 2. Such business function blocks can be used as components for configuring a workflow.

The workflow control unit 4 sends and receives task execution instructions and execution results relating to work to and from the normal terminals C1,..., Cn and the terminals T0,.
Control business execution according to workflow.

Next, the terminals T0, T1,..., Tn
Will be described.

The business applications A1,..., An
It is composed of a plurality of task execution modules, one of which performs unit task processing. For example, if one word processor incorporates a printing function and a table creation function in addition to the document creation function, the document creation function,
The execution module that performs the printing function or the table creation function is the business execution module.

The application control means controls a business application or a business database based on an execution command received from the workflow control unit 4, transfers initial data and causes the business execution module to process the processed data. Upon receipt, it is converted into a packet and sent to the workflow control unit 4 via the computer network. Such application control means include, for example, a network-compatible OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) control, a script language that is a WWW (World Wide Web) extension language, and a network-compatible API (Application Prog.
ram Interface) is developed for each business application or business database. The business application or business database is provided with a network-compatible function, and a network connection with the workflow control unit 4 of the server machine 1 is established. It is possible to exchange data through the Internet. Thereby, a workflow system using an existing business application or business database can be constructed. Therefore, there is no need to newly develop a business application or a business database only for building a workflow system, so that the cost and labor required for building and rebuilding the workflow system can be significantly reduced.

The processing results in the workflow creation management section 3 and the workflow control section 4 are transferred to the flow control database 2 and accumulated therein. Also,
The flow control database 2 includes routine and atypical unit operations, such as sending documents, circulating documents, approving approval documents as an atypical operation, and processing various slips as a routine operation.
Information on unit work such as budget application, accounting processing, contract processing, etc., as well as routine and irregular work such as technical document creation, software development, product management, etc. are stored.
Also stored are a business application required to perform each unit business, a table indicating the correspondence between the network addresses of the business database and the terminals, a workflow template, and the like.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the "estimation business" according to the present invention.
An example of a workflow relating to this workflow will be described, and a flow of a series of tasks based on this workflow will be described below. This workflow consists of a start block 10 and an end block 1
7, the estimate creation block 11, the branch block 12,
The estimation approval block 13, the convergence block 14, the estimation printing block 15, and the estimation registration block 16 are cooperatively arranged. Also, as shown in FIG. 4, the quote creation block 11, the quote approval block 13, the quote print block 1
5 and the estimate registration block 16 include "application data" defined in the data definition means 3b of the workflow creation management unit 3, "participating member group" defined in the user definition means 3c, and definition in the system management means 3e. Attribute information, such as the “business execution terminal”, is associated with each other, and the cooperative arrangement of these blocks is defined by the flow definition means 3d.
Note that the parentheses attached to the respective application data shown in FIG. 4 indicate "W" if the data can be updated, and "R" if the data can be referenced and cannot be updated. A series of operations according to such a workflow proceeds as follows.

First, the person in charge issues a login request to the server 1 through the terminal C1, and the server 1 issues a login process to the terminal C1 after performing login processing such as authentication. The terminals C1,..., Cn are terminals T.
As with 0, T1,..., And Tn, a business application, a business database, and an application control means may be provided or may not be provided.

Next, a workflow execution request relating to "estimation work" is issued to the server machine 1 from the terminal machine C1. The workflow control unit 4 of the server machine 1 receiving this execution request
Refers to the flow control database 2 and calls a workflow related to the stored “estimation work” to start the execution processing.

First, the processing shifts from the start block 10 to the estimate creation block 11. At the time of this transition, the application data of the start block 10 is transferred to the estimate creation block. Next, the estimate creation block 11 issues a task execution request for performing the estimate creation operation to the terminal X1, which is a terminal that executes the estimate creation operation, and also transmits application data necessary for estimate creation, for example, “estimate data” Transmit "comments" etc.

The task execution request is transmitted to the application control means of the terminal X1 via the network. Next, the application control means activates the business application, passes the application data to the estimate creation execution module included in the business application and processes the application data, and receives processing data such as “estimated amount” and “gross margin”. The packet is converted into a packet and transmitted to the workflow control unit 4 through the computer network. Next, the workflow control unit 4 stores these processing data in the flow control server 2, displays the completion of the processing in the estimate creation block 11 on the flow display means 3a of the workflow creation management unit 3, and notifies the person in charge. Notify transmission.

Next, under the control of the workflow control unit 4, the processing shifts from the estimate creation block 11 to the branch block 12. In the branch block 12, "whether or not the estimated amount is 1,000,000 yen or more" is determined as a branch condition.
If the estimated amount is 1,000,000 yen or more, the processing path is changed to the estimation approval block 13, and if the estimated amount is less than 1,000,000 yen, the processing path does not change. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a flow of a series of operations when a route that has passed through the estimation approval block 13 is selected.

If the "estimated amount is 1,000,000 yen or more", the processing shifts to the estimate approval block 13, and the estimated approval block 13 converts the "estimated amount" to the manager terminal X such as a section manager or a section manager.
2 to notify the transmission, and urge the approval or denial of the "estimated amount". When the administrator approves or rejects the "estimated amount", the approval or rejection data is transmitted to the workflow control unit 4 of the server machine 1, the application data of the estimate approval block is updated, and the flow control database 2 is updated. Is stored. Next, when the “estimated amount” is approved, the process proceeds to the convergence block 14, and when the “estimated amount” is rejected, the process returns to the estimate creating block 11, and the person in charge is notified of the approval or rejection result.

When the "estimated amount" is approved, the application data is transmitted to the estimated print block 15 via the convergence block 14 indicating the end of the conditional branch processing. Next, the estimate print block 15 issues a task execution request to create an estimate for the terminal X3 that performs the estimate print job. Terminal X that received this task execution request
The third application control means activates a business application having an estimate print function and causes the application data to be printed through the business execution module. Next, the application control unit transmits the end result of the printing operation to the workflow control unit 4 via the computer network. This end result is stored in a table of the flow control database 2 under the control of the workflow control unit 4.

Next, the estimate registration block 16 transmits the application data to the application control means of the terminal X4 through the computer network, and stores the application data in the estimate business database incorporated in the terminal X4 under the control of the application control means. Let it.

Finally, the processing shifts to the end block 17, and the process relating to "estimation work" ends. The progress in the above process is collectively managed by the system management means 3e of the workflow creation management unit 3, and persons in charge of a series of tasks are notified of the progress one by one.

In the above process, the user authentication means necessary to refer to and update each business function block is set for each block. Specifically, a table showing the correspondence between the user name and the password is prepared in the flow control database 2, and the user who refers to and updates each business function block is prompted to input the user name and the password. As a result, a user not defined in the “participating user group” or a user for the purpose of unauthorized access cannot refer to and update the business function block.

The means for encrypting and decrypting the transmission data on the network may be incorporated in the application control means of the terminal device or the workflow control section 4 of the server device 1. The means for encryption and decryption include:
A known encryption technique can be appropriately selected and used.

Next, a modified example of the workflow support execution system according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing this modification.

The execution environment of the workflow support execution system of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment.
, Cn, and terminals T11, T12,
.., Tm. The terminals C1,..., Cn are ordinary network-compatible terminals, and the terminal T11 is
A terminal T12,..., Tm is provided with an application control means B11 and a business database A11, and the operation control means D12,. ,... Are provided. As described above, a plurality of business applications are incorporated in one terminal, and operation control means is interposed between the business applications and the application control means. In addition, these server machines and terminals may be any known computers,
It is not limited to the type of OS (operating system) or the type of platform. A transmission medium such as Ethernet can be used for the computer network.

The application control means has the same functions as those of the first embodiment, and, based on a plurality of task execution commands transmitted from the workflow control section 4 of the server machine 1, via the operation control means,
Indirectly control multiple business applications. The operation control means activates a business application suitable for each task execution instruction, transfers the initial data, causes the business execution module to process the data, receives the processed data, and transfers the processed data to the application control means. The application control means converts the received processing data into a packet and sends the packet to the workflow control unit 4. For example, the business application A21 having the “estimate creation” function in the terminal T12 shown in FIG.
And business application A2 with "estimate approval" function
2 is incorporated, the application control means B12 receives the task execution instructions of "estimate creation" and "estimate approval",
2, the business applications A21 and A22 are controlled. Such operation control means is, like the application control means, OLE (Object L)
inking and Embedding) control and API (Applic
development program interface).

Next, a procedure for creating a workflow in the workflow creation management section 3 will be described. First, a series of tasks is decomposed into a plurality of unit tasks, and then a task function block defining attribute information of these unit tasks is created. In the above "Estimation Business", the "Estimation Business" is disassembled into four unit businesses: Create Estimate, Approve Estimate, Print Estimate and Register Estimate and create Estimate Creation Block, Estimate Approval Block, Estimate Print Block and Estimate Registration Block did.

Next, the attribute information of the business function blocks is defined by the data definition means 3b, the user definition means 3c and the flow definition means 3d of the workflow creation management section 3, and the workflow function blocks are arranged in a cooperative manner. Create As described above, “application data” is defined by the data definition unit 3b, and “participating user groups” and the like are defined by workflow or business function block by the user definition unit 3c. When a branch block is used, a branch condition expression using an arithmetic operator, a logical operator, a relational operator, an equality operator, an assignment operator, and the like is defined and stored as attribute information. Application data types include signed integers, unsigned integers, floating point, fixed point, fixed length character strings,
Various types such as fixed-length binary, date and time, variable-length binary, and structure can be defined. Therefore, it is possible to flexibly cope with the input / output data format of the business application and the business database of the independent specification.

Other attribute information includes a login ID of a participating user group, a user full name, a validity period,
It is possible to appropriately set administrator items and the like.

The workflow is constructed by cooperatively arranging such business function blocks, that is, the above-described start block, end block, and processing block. When actually creating a workflow, the flow display means 3a
The iconic business function blocks are moved using a pointing device such as a mouse or user interface means such as a keyboard while being displayed, and are linked by connecting the business function blocks with a line. After the business function blocks are arranged in cooperation, attribute information can be added to each business function block.

By using such a workflow creation management unit 3 in combination, it is possible to easily create and reconstruct a workflow system, so that the number of steps for developing the workflow system is greatly reduced and the development cost is reduced. And the development period can be shortened.

[0044]

As described above, in the workflow support execution system according to the first aspect, the task execution modules are distributed and arranged in the computers on the network, and the task execution modules are controlled and the data transfer between the task execution modules and the network is performed. Since it has application control means, it is necessary to develop application control means corresponding to the existing business execution module when building and rebuilding a workflow system. The cost and the development period can be reduced. A workflow creation management unit for creating and integrally managing a workflow in which at least one computer on the computer network is configured by chronologically arranging business function blocks defining attribute information of a unit business in chronological order; , A workflow control unit and a flow control database, so that unit work can be managed for each business function block, so that efficient system operation can be performed.

According to the workflow support execution system of the present invention, since the business execution module is included in a business application or a business database, a multifunctional business application including the business execution module as one function, The business database can be used.

In the workflow support execution system according to the third aspect, since the workflow creation management unit includes a data definition unit, a user definition unit, a flow definition unit, and a flow display unit, it is very easy to create a workflow. And the process can be redefined. Therefore, the number of development steps of the workflow system is greatly simplified, and the development cost and the development period can be reduced.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the workflow support execution system is provided with the user authentication means for referring to or updating the attribute information of the business function block, so that the security in the network can be enhanced. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a first embodiment of a workflow support execution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a cooperative arrangement of business function blocks in a workflow according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing one embodiment of a workflow according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of attribute information of a business function block.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing a modified example of the workflow support execution system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 server machine 2 flow control database 3 workflow creation management unit 3a flow display unit 3b data definition unit 3c user definition unit 3d flow definition unit 3e system management unit 4 workflow control unit 10 start block 11 estimate creation block 12 branch block 13 estimate approval block 14 Convergence block 15 Estimation printing block 16 Estimation registration block 17 End block

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. In a computer network configured by connecting a plurality of computers to a network,
A workflow support execution system that supports creation of a workflow composed of a series of tasks and executes the tasks of the workflow, and includes a plurality of computers on a computer network, in which a task execution module that executes a unit task is distributed and arranged. An application control means for controlling the task execution module and transferring data between the task execution module and a network, wherein at least one computer on the computer network defines attribute information of a unit task; A workflow creation management unit for creating and integrating management of a workflow configured by arranging functional blocks in chronological order, a task execution command transmitted to a task execution terminal incorporating a task execution module, and the task execution module Receiving the execution result of A workflow control unit that shifts to a transmission process to the next business function block, and a flow control database that stores a correspondence relationship between the business function block, its attribute information, and a workflow. Execution system. 2. The workflow support execution according to claim 1, wherein said application control means executes a business application incorporated in a computer on a network or a business execution module included in a business database and obtains the execution result. system. 3. A data defining means for defining the attribute information, wherein the workflow creation management unit defines a type of data to be transmitted and received between business function blocks, and a participant user for each workflow or business function block. User definition means for defining a group, flow definition means for defining cooperative conditions between business function blocks, and flow display means for visually representing a workflow and displaying attribute information of each business function block The workflow support execution system according to claim 1, wherein the workflow support execution system is configured. 4. The workflow support execution system according to claim 1, further comprising a user authentication unit for referring to or updating attribute information of the business function block.