AU2018214441A1

AU2018214441A1 - Workplace task management system and process

Info

Publication number: AU2018214441A1
Application number: AU2018214441A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Paul LUCOCK
Original assignee: Lucock Ip Holdings Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Lucock Ip Holdings Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2017-02-01
Filing date: 2018-02-01
Publication date: 2020-08-20
Also published as: WO2018141012A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic networked system for managing the allocation of tasks to workers, for monitoring the performance of those tasks, and for generating statistical measures of task performance, and in particular to a workplace task management system and process. The described embodiments of the present invention include a workplace management system and process that enable the decentralised management of activities associated with one or more workplaces. The workplace management system and process described generate an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for display on computing devices such as desktop computers and portable computing devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, and that allows users of the system to easily manage the allocation of workers to tasks and the performance of those tasks.

Description

Workplace Task Management System and Process

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an electronic networked system for managing the allocation of tasks to workers, for monitoring the performance of those tasks, and for generating statistical measures of task performance, and in particular to a workplace task management system and process.

Background

Many organisations employ workers and assign them to various tasks as those tasks become available. For example, hospitals employ nurses and orderlies to perform many different tasks, but the allocation of individual tasks to individual nurses and orderlies is time-consuming, inefficient, and prone to error (for example, some tasks may be inadvertently overlooked, and thus not performed or at least not performed in a timely manner). Moreover, managing the supply of human resources to meet demand in multiple workplaces of an organisation is challenging, and can create situations where, for example, workers at one worksite sometimes have no tasks to perform, whereas workers at another worksite of the same or a related organisation are fully occupied and cannot meet demand. It can also be difficult to monitor the performance of workers to ensure that they are being efficiently utilised. It is desired to overcome or alleviate one or more difficulties of the prior art, or to at least provide a useful alternative.

Summary

In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a workplace task management system, including:

at least one database storing:

user data representing users of the system, at least some of the users being workers who perform tasks at one or more workplaces; and

task data representing tasks performed or to be performed by the workers at one or more of the workplaces, and, for each of the tasks, at least a corresponding task type, and a corresponding location of the task;

a workplace management server coupled to the database, and including: at least one network interface to receive data from a communications network;

at least one computer processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one computer processor; one or more computing devices for use by users of the system, each of the one or more computing devices including:

at least one network interface to receive data from a communications network;

at least one computer processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one computer processor; wherein at least one of the memory of the workplace management server and the memory of each of the one or more computing devices stores instructions that, when executed by the corresponding at least one computer processor, cause the corresponding at least one computer processor to generate user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on a corresponding one of the one or more computing devices used by users of the system, the interactive user interface including:

(i) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by workers of the system, and one or more corresponding interactive components operable by each of a plurality of workers of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for the worker to claim a selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the worker intends to perform the selected task;

wherein, responsive to the claim request, the server updates the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the worker;

(ii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the worker to indicate that the selected task has been completed by the worker; wherein, responsive to the close request, the server updates the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the worker; and (iii) interactive components operable by one or more users of the system to cause the generation of a create task request to update the task data to include in the list of unclaimed tasks a new task to be performed by at least one of the workers at a corresponding location;

wherein, responsive to the create task request, the server updates the task data so that the list of unclaimed tasks in the interactive user interface includes the new task. In some embodiments, the unclaimed tasks include one or more multiple worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a corresponding predetermined number of the workers, and each of the multiple worker tasks remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed until the multiple worker task has been claimed by a corresponding number of the workers at least equal to the corresponding predetermined number. In some embodiments, the unclaimed tasks include one or more single worker tasks each of which is to be performed by any one of the workers, and each of the single worker tasks is removed from the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed if the single worker task has been claimed. In some embodiments, the task data includes, for each of a plurality of the tasks, data indicative of a corresponding claiming period, wherein the task remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed even if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task until an elapsed time is at least equal to the corresponding claiming period.

In some embodiments, the elapsed time is from a creation time of the task or from a time when the task was first claimed.

In some embodiments, if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than a number of workers required to perform the task, then the process includes automatically selecting workers to perform the task from the workers who have claimed the task based, at least in part, on attributes of the workers who have claimed the task. In some embodiments, the attributes of the workers include one or more of:

(i) a location of each worker relative to a location of the task; and

(ii) a role or expertise of each worker; and

(iii) an indication of the past performance of each worker. In some embodiments, the user data for each worker includes data representing a role or expertise of the worker, and the task data includes, for each corresponding task, data representing a role or expertise required by the task, wherein a worker is only able to claim a task if the role or expertise of the worker matches or exceeds the role or expertise required by the task. In some embodiments, the user data includes closed task data representing, for each of a plurality of the workers, tasks performed by the worker, and the process includes processing the closed task data for each worker to generate worker performance data representing one or more statistical measures of the corresponding performance of the worker.

In some embodiments, the one or more statistical measures include, one or more measures of:

(i) a number of tasks completed per shift;

(ii) a task completion time; and

(iii) independent assessments of the performance of the tasks.

In some embodiments, the one or more corresponding interactive components are operable by at least one of the users of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for a selected worker who is not the at least one user to claim the selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the selected worker is to perform the selected task; wherein, responsive to the claim request, the server updates the task data to indicate the assigning of the selected task to the worker. In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a workplace task management process executed by at least one processor of a workplace management system, the process including the steps of:

storing, in at least one database:

generating user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on computing devices of the system, the interactive user interface including: (i) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by workers of the system, and one or more corresponding interactive components operable by each of a plurality of workers of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for the worker to claim a selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the worker intends to perform the selected task;

(ii) one or more interactive components operable by the worker to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the worker to indicate that the selected task has been completed by the worker; and

(iii) interactive components operable by one or more users of the system to cause the generation of a create task request to update the task data to include in the list of unclaimed tasks a new task to be performed by at least one of the workers at a corresponding location;

responsive to the claim request, updating the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the worker;

responsive to the close request, updating the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the worker; and

responsive to the create task request, updating the task data so that the list of unclaimed tasks in the interactive user interface includes the new task.

In some embodiments, the unclaimed tasks include one or more multiple worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a corresponding predetermined number of the workers, and each of the multiple worker tasks remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed until the multiple worker task has been claimed by a corresponding number of the workers at least equal to the corresponding predetermined number.

In some embodiments, the unclaimed tasks include one or more single worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a worker, and each of the single worker tasks is removed from the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed if the single worker task has been claimed.

In some embodiments, the task data includes data representing, for each of a plurality of the tasks, data indicative of a corresponding claiming period, wherein the task remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed even if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task until an elapsed time is at least equal to the corresponding claiming period.

In some embodiments, if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task, then the process includes selecting workers to perform the task from the workers who have claimed the task based, at least in part, on attributes of the workers who have claimed the task.

In some embodiments the attributes of the workers include one or more of:

(i) a location of each worker relative to a location of the task; and

(ii) a role or expertise of each worker; and

(iii) an indication of the past performance of each worker.

In some embodiments, the user data includes, for each worker, data representing a role or expertise of the worker, and the task data includes, for each corresponding task, data representing a role or expertise required by the task, wherein a worker is only able to claim a task if the role or expertise of the worker matches or exceeds the role or expertise required by the task.

In some embodiments, the user data includes closed task data representing, for each of a plurality of the workers, tasks performed by the worker, and the process includes processing the closed task data for each worker to generate worker performance data representing, for each worker, one or more statistical measures of the corresponding performance of the worker.

(i) a number of tasks completed per shift;

(ii) a task completion time; and

(iii) independent assessments of the performance of the tasks. In some embodiments the workplace task management process includes using one or more wireless sensors of each computing device to generate location data representing a location of the computing device, and processing the location data to determine a proximity of the corresponding worker to a location of a corresponding task and thus determine whether to allow the worker to claim one or more of the tasks available for claiming.

In some embodiments the workplace task management process includes receiving, at the computing device, the generated user interface data, and processing the generated user interface data to display an interactive user interface on the computing device.

In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, there is provided one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system or device, cause the at least one processor to execute any one of above processes.

Also described herein is a workplace task management system, including:

at least one database storing:

a workplace management server coupled to the database, and including:

at least one network interface to receive data from a communications network; at least one computer processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to:

generate user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on remote computing devices used by users of the system, the interactive user interface including:

(i) interactive components operable by one or more users of the system to cause the generation of a new task request to update the task data to include in the tasks a new task to be performed by at least one of the workers at a corresponding location; wherein, responsive to the request, the server updates the task data so that the corresponding tasks to be performed include the new task;

(ii) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by users of the system, and corresponding interactive components operable by each of a plurality of users of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for the user to claim a selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the user intends to perform the selected task;

wherein, responsive to the claim request, the server updates the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the user; and

(iii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the user to indicate that the selected task has been completed by the user;

wherein, responsive to the close request, the server updates the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the user.

Also described herein is a workplace task management process executed by at least one processor of a workplace management server, the process including the steps of:

storing, in at least one database:

generating user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on remote computing devices used by users of the system, the interactive user interface including:

(i) interactive components operable by one or more users of the system to cause the generation of a new task request to update the task data to include in the tasks a new task to be performed by at least one of the workers at a corresponding location;

(ii) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by users of the system, and corresponding interactive components operable by each of a plurality of users of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for the user to claim a selected one of the unclaimed tasks in the list to indicate that the user intends to perform the selected task; and (iii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the user and indicate that the selected task has been completed by the user;

responsive to the new task request, updating the task data so that the corresponding tasks to be performed include the new task;

responsive to the claim request, updating the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the user; and

responsive to the close request, updating the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the user.

Also described herein is a workplace task management process executed by at least one processor of a mobile computing system, the process including the steps of: receiving, from a server of a workplace management system, user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on the mobile computing device, and displaying the interactive user interface to a user of the mobile computing device, the interactive user interface including:

(i) interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a new task request to update the task data to include in the tasks a new task to be performed by at least one of the workers at a corresponding location;

(ii) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by the user, and corresponding interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a claim request for the user to claim a selected one of the unclaimed tasks in the list to indicate that the user intends to perform the selected task; and

(iii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the user and indicate that the selected task has been completed by the user;

using one or more wireless sensors of the mobile computing device to generate location data representing a location of the mobile computing device, and sending the location data to the server of a workplace management system so that the server can determine a proximity of the location of the user to a location of a corresponding task and thus determine whether to allow the user to claim one or more of the tasks available for claiming. Brief Description of the Drawings

Some embodiments of the present invention are hereinafter described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a workplace management system in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a block diagram of a computing device of the workplace management system ;

Figure 3 is a flow diagram of a task management process of a workplace management server in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a flow diagram of a task creation process of the task management process of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a flow diagram of a task claiming process of the task management process of Figure 3; Figure 6 is a flow diagram of a task claiming process of a workplace management user device in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a flow diagram of a task completion process of the task management process of Figure 3;

Figure 8 is a flow diagram of a task management performance analysis process of a workplace management server in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 9a is a screenshot of a "Create Staff" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ; Figure 9b is a screenshot of a second "Create Staff" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; Figure 10a is a screenshot of a "Staff" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 1 Ob is a screenshot of a second format of the "Staff" user interface window of Figure 10 in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 10c is a screenshot of a "Staff Performance" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 1 Od is a screenshot of an "Staff Performance List" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 11 is a screenshot of an "Edit Staff" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ; Figure 12 is a screenshot of a "Login" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 13a is a screenshot of a "Create Job" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 13b is a screenshot of a second "Create Job" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; Figure 13c is a screenshot of a third "Create Job" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; Figure 13d is a screenshot of a "Job Type List" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 13e is a screenshot of a second "Job Type List" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 13f is a screenshot of a "Create Job Type" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; Figure 13g is a screenshot of an "Edit Job Type" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 13 h is a screenshot of an "Create Role" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 3 i is a screenshot of an "Roles List" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 14a is a screenshot of a first "Jobs" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 14b is a screenshot of a second "Jobs" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ; Figure 14c is a screenshot of a first "Job summary" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

Figure 14d is a screenshot of a second "Job summary" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; Figure 14e is a screenshot of a third "Jobs" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention ;

Figure 15 is a screenshot of an "Edit Job" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention; and

Figure 16 is a screenshot of a fourth "Jobs" user interface window of a workplace management client application in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. Detailed Description

The described embodiments of the present invention include a workplace management system and process that enable the decentralised management of activities associated with one or more workplaces. The workplace management system and process described herein generate an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for display on computing devices such as desktop computers and portable computing devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, and that allows users of the system to easily manage the allocation of workers to tasks and the performance of those tasks.

Specifically, sufficiently authorised users of the system can create one or more lists of activities (variously also referred to herein as 'tasks' or 'jobs') that are to be performed by workers at one or more workplaces. For convenience of description, the data representation of each actual task or activity or job to be performed is also referred to herein as a "task".

The creation of these "tasks" in the system can be performed by any worker registered to use the workplace management system (referred to herein as a "user") and has sufficient permissions to create new tasks. A task is created by the user interacting with the interactive graphical user interface to select from a list of predefined task types, and entering any specific attributes or parameters, as described below. Some tasks can only be performed by workers having the appropriate skills, experience, or role, and consequently a task can have corresponding attributes associated with it. Users of the system can access the system using a networked computing device to display a list of available tasks that have yet to be allocated to workers. Available tasks are referred to herein as unclaimed tasks, and have an associated status of "unclaimed". The assignment of a task to a user occurs as a result of a task claiming process that is initiated by a user (who is typically, but not necessarily, the same user who is to perform the task). A user claims a task displayed on the computing device by selecting the task using the interactive graphical user interface, as described below. A task having one or more attributes that place limitations on the users who can claim that task can only be claimed by users having corresponding attributes. After a user has claimed a task, the status of that task is updated to "claimed", and is removed from a displayed list of active tasks available for claiming (i.e., the list of "unclaimed" tasks). The system stores data representing the claiming of the task by the user, together with a timestamp representing the date and time at which the user claimed the task. After claiming a task, the user performs the task, and, once completed, uses the interactive graphical user interface generated by the system to indicate that the claimed task has now been completed, in response to which this system stores data representing the status of the task as being completed or "closed", together with a corresponding timestamp. The difference between the timestamps generated when the task status becomes "claimed" and "closed" represents a task 'duration', and is stored in order to assess task performance, as described below.

The self-designation based approach to task allocation provided by the system removes the need for managers to allocate tasks to others, and the matching of task and user attributes ensures that a worker claiming a task has the appropriate skills, expertise, or role, and thereby substantially improves not only the efficiency of task allocation, but also the performance of those tasks, since tasks are only performed by those workers who have chosen to do those tasks.

At least some users of the system are able to monitor the active and inactive tasks that have been created in the system. Active tasks include tasks that have been created, but have not yet been claimed by workers, and tasks that have been claimed, but have not yet been performed or completed. Inactive tasks include tasks that have been completed, and tasks that were cancelled prior to completion or were never claimed. In some embodiments, a single task can have multiple assigned users, such as in cases where the task represents an activity of the workplace that requires more than one worker to complete (referred to herein as a "multiple worker task"). Each multiple worker task may be performed by a predetermined number of workers, specified either as an exact value (i.e., where exactly X workers need to be assigned to the task for completion) or as a minimum threshold number (i.e., where the task requires at least X workers for completion). By default, the workplace management system is configured to treat a multiple worker task as completed when a task completion indication is received from any one of the multiple assigned users (i.e. workers that have claimed the task, or been assigned to the task, as described herein below). However, in other configurations the workplace management system can treat multiple worker tasks as completed only once a task completion indication is received from each of the users that are assigned to the task.

In other embodiments, each task can have only one assigned worker/user, and the completion of the task occurs when a task completion indication is received from that assigned user.

The workplace management system can perform task management analysis operations based on tasks that are created, claimed and completed/closed by users to automatically generate task performance data representing task performance statistics that indicate the effectiveness with which workers create, claim and complete tasks.

In the described embodiments, the workplace management system assigns a user role to each user to determine the tasks of the workplace that the user can create and claim. The user role is typically determined at the time of registration of the user with the system, and is based on the user's skills, qualifications and/or experience. The workplace proficiency of the user can be quantified by an expertise rating that quantifies the user's competency in one or more work categories associated with the corresponding user role.

Tasks created within the workplace management system are assigned a task type (or "Job type") that classifies the task, optionally in association with the particular workplace. The classification can be arbitrary and may, for example, be descriptive of a primary activity undertaken as part of the task. In the described embodiments, task requirements data can optionally be defined for each task to specify a set of one or more user roles and/or expertise ratings (including sub-values for the work categories associated with the user role). For a particular user having a given user role to claim a task having defined task requirements data, the user is required to possess one or more expertise rating values that equal, or exceed, those of the corresponding expertise rating of the task requirements data. Additionally, constraints on task claiming can be defined based on proximity of the user to the location of the task, optionally in combination with timing constraints, as described below.

The workplace management system can also be configured to constrain the creation of new tasks by users based on the corresponding task type. Each task type can have associated one or more user roles that enable a user of at least one of the corresponding roles to create a task of the particular task type.

For example, in the context of a hospital workplace a user with a user role of "nurse" might not have permission to create a "prepare operating theatre" task representing the preparation of an operating theatre room for surgery. However, a nurse might be able to claim the prepare operating theatre task, provided that the nurse's user profile has attributes or expertise values that satisfy the task requirements of the "prepare operating theatre" task.

In the described embodiments, an administrative user interacts with the workplace management system via an administrator user device, in the form of a computing device as described herein, in order to perform administrative functions, such as registering new users with the system, modifying the attributes of users, and removing a user registration from the system. The administrative user can modify the types of tasks that can be created and managed in association with a particular type of workplace, and the corresponding permissions and task requirements that are stored for each task type. The administrative user can request the generation of task management statistics, and can configure the reporting mode used to report task management performance statistics.

The system can generate task management performance statistics by processing the task data. The system can apply standard statistical analysis techniques known to those skilled in the art in respect of one or more analysis metrics and/or other advanced analysis techniques to produce the task management performance data. In some embodiments, the system can permit any user access to administrative functions without the creation of specific administrative user accounts. In these embodiments, a user may be required to successfully carry out an authentication activity (such as, for example, by providing input in the form of a password, security pattern, or PIN value, or by biometric authentication) in order to perform an administrative function. The workplace management system can provide the administrative users, and optionally other users, with task management report data to allow those users to view representations of the operational performance of the workplace and/or of individual users (for example, the system can be configured so that non-administrative users can only view their own personal performance data, optionally relative to aggregate measures of other users (e.g., other users of the same role, or all other users). The task management report data can represent task creation, assignment, and completion information for all, or a specific subset of, users of the workplace management system.

The workplace management system and processes described herein advantageously provides a platform for an organisation to manage the activities performed by workers that:

1) provides flexibility in the management of tasks representing workplace activities, by allowing for task creation, claiming (in the form of self designation), and completion/closing in a dynamic and decentralised manner, and by any arbitrary worker (subject to permission constraints);

2) allows for constraints to be enforced on the eligibility of users to create and claim particular tasks based on the user's role and/or expertise, such that the integrity of the workplace's operational structure is maintained; and

3) enables workers to engage in task management while seamlessly completing their workplace duties through the use of mobile computing devices to interact with the workplace management system.

System

As shown in Figure 1, a workplace management system 100 includes a user device 102, such as a smartphone, tablet or portable computer, operated by a user 101 and in communication with a workplace management server 110 via a communications network 116. The user 101 operates the user device 102 for the purpose of interacting with the workplace management server 110 to: create a task associated with a workplace of the user 101; claim an existing task (i.e., an unclaimed task that has already been created) resulting in that task being assigned to the user 101 for completion; and indicate the completion of a task that was designated to the user 101. The user device 102 includes a user interface (Ul) module 104 for accepting user input from the user 101 , or from any other user of the user device 102, a communications module 106 for receiving and transmitting data, and a workplace management client application 108 that coordinates the process by which the user

101 can perform task management according to the decentralised task creation, assignment and completion processes described herein below.

In the described embodiments, the workplace management client application 108 is a generic web browser application that renders, on a display of the user device 102, the Ul 104 of one or more webpages hosted by the workplace management server 110, in order to provide the workplace management system functionality (as described herein below) to the user 101. In such embodiments, data representing interactive user interface elements is generated by the workplace management server 110, and this data is transmitted to the user device 102 to enable the display of the appropriate webpages by the browser application. However, the skilled addressee will appreciate that in other embodiments, such as those where the workplace management client application is a specialised application or 'app' (as described below), the interactive user interface elements may be generated by the user device 102 and only task data is communicated from the workplace management server 110 to the user device 102.

In some embodiments, the workplace management client application 108 is a specialised software application that enables communication between the user device

102 and the workplace management server 110, such as a mobile application obtainable via a mobile software distribution platform (e.g., Google Play Store) and provided by a vendor of the workplace management system 100, a dedicated software package, or a web browser directed to display the web page content of a workplace management service of the vendor through which the workplace management functionality is provided. The workplace management system 100 can also be accessed by an administrative user 103 via an administrative user device 105. In the described embodiments, the administrative user device 105 is a standard computer device that accesses the workplace management system 100 via a generic web browser application in the manner described above. The administrative user 103 accesses corresponding administrative functions of the workplace management system 100 by authenticating with the system, as described below. The user device 102 communicates with the workplace management server 110 via the communications network 116. The communications network 116 can be a local or wide area network, or a combination of a plurality of different local or wide area subnetworks. As described above, the workplace management server 110 receives requests from the user device 102 in relation to creating, claiming and closing tasks managed by the system 100. The workplace management server 110 processes the requests via a request handler module 112 in order to perform the task management functionality described herein below. The request handler module 112 includes a communication interface configured to exchange data with one or more user devices over the communications network 116.

The workplace management server 110 transmits data to the user device 102, including task data representing unclaimed tasks able to be claimed by the user 101, and data indicating the successful creation, claiming or completion of a task by the user 101. Data is exchanged between the user device 102 and the workplace management server 110 via standard secure communications protocols, and subject to the user 101 providing authentication credentials, such as a username and password combination to log into the system 100.

The task management functionality of the workplace management server 110 is provided by a task creator module 114, a task assigner module 116, a task completer module 118 and an analysis module 120. Following verification and preliminary processing steps, the request handler 112 invokes one of the modules 114, 116, 118 and 120 in response to receiving data from the user device 102. Requests to create a new task (referred to as "task creation requests") are passed from the request handler 112 to the task creation module 114. The task creation module 114 processes user data, and task parameter data included with the task creation request, representing the identity of the user and the parameters of the task requested for creation respectively. The task creation module 114 generates task data representing the new task within the workplace management system 100.

The task assigner 116 modifies task data stored by the system in order to assign a user 101 to a particular task, following the receipt of a task claim request from the user device 102 in respect of the particular task. Assignment of a user 101 to a task can also be performed by the task assigner 116 in response to a task assignment request received from an administrative user 103 (as described below). The task completer module 118 updates task data stored by the system 100 in order to record the completion of a task. The completion of a task is recorded by the system 100 in response to a task completion indication received from the user device 102 of a user 101 assigned to the task. The analysis module 120 performs statistical analyses of the task data maintained by the workplace management system 100 to generate task statistics, such as for example task completion statistics for particular users, as described herein below.

In the described embodiments, the workplace management server 110 is coupled to a database, including a user database table 122, a task database table 124 and a workplace database table 126. The database tables 122, 124 and 126 are accessed via a database management system (DBMS) of the workplace management server 110. The DBMS uses SQL (structured query language) to query the database, which is implemented as a relational database in the described embodiments. The skilled addressee will appreciate that, in other embodiments, the workplace management system 100 may implement a different organisation and/or structure for the database and the corresponding database tables, to that described below.

The workplace database table 126 stores data representing instances of particular workplaces for which the workplace management system 100 performs task management. In the described embodiments, the workplace database table 126 includes a 'workplace' table in which each entry specifies a workplace identifier identifying the workplace among all workplaces managed by the system 100; a workplace name; a workplace description; and a workplace type identifying the type of the workplace.

The user database table 122 stores data representing the users of the workplace management system 100. In the described embodiments, each entry of the user database table 122 represents a user of the workplace management system 100 by: a user identifier uniquely identifying the user among all users registered with the system; a username and corresponding password used to authenticate the user with the workplace management server 110; a first name of the user; a last name of the user; an address of the user; a user role identifier uniquely identifying a particular user role of the user; an expertise field (see below); a location of the user (see below); and a workplace identifier identifying the workplace of the user. In the described embodiments, each user 101 has expertise with respect to particular work categories defined by their user role. The expertise rating of a user is represented in the user table entry by the expertise field, which consists of integer values quantifying the expertise level of the user for each respective work category corresponding to their user role. For example, the work categories for a 'Nurse' user role may include "Technical", "Management", and "Patient Manner", and so the expertise field within the user table entry would record an array of 3 integer values corresponding to these respective categories, where each value is between 0 and 100 with a higher value indicating a higher degree of expertise in the work category.

The user database table 122 also includes a set of user role values which represents a set of user roles that can be assigned to users of the system, where each user role is associated with a particular workplace. Each user role is defined by: a user role identifier uniquely identifying the user role among all user roles managed by the system; a user role name; a user role description; and a workplace identifier identifying the workplace for which the user role is defined. For example, a 'Nurse' user role may have a workplace identifier as the workplace identifier value of a corresponding entry in the workplace database table 126 representing a workplace of 'Hospital' type. As such, only a user with the same workplace identifier (i.e., users that also work in the hospital represented by the corresponding entry in the workplace database table) can assume this 'Nurse' user role.

The task database table 124 of the workplace management system 100 stores data representing the tasks managed by the system. The task database table 124 includes a 'tasks' table containing entries corresponding to workplace tasks that have been created by users of the system 100. The task table contains fields including: a task identifier uniquely identifying the task among all tasks managed by the workplace management system 100; a task name; a task description; a task type identifier indicating the type of the task represented by the entry; a creating user ID uniquely identifying the user of the system who created the task; a location at which the task is to be performed; and a workplace identifier that identifies the workplace for which the task is defined. In some embodiments, each task can also have one or more other attributes, where the value of each attribute can be set according to the task type (as described below). For example, tasks associated with a hospital workplace can have a priority attribute that specifies the urgency with which the task is to be completed relative to other tasks in the workplace (as described further below). Attributes of a task are stored in an array within the corresponding task table entry. The status of a task managed by the workplace management system 100 is represented by task status data recorded within the corresponding task table entry. The tasks status data includes values representing: an indication of the state of the task; one or more assigned user identifiers representing the users assigned to the task; one or more assignment date-time values (i.e., timestamps) indicating when each assigned user was assigned to the task; a creation date-time value indicating when the task was created; a creating user identifier representing the creating user; a completion date-time value indicating when the task was completed; and a completion user identifier representing the completing user. The task database table 124 also includes a 'task type' table storing data representing the types of tasks that can be managed by the workplace management system 100. Entries of the task type table specify values for the fields of: a task type identifier; a task type name; a task type description; permission data representing one or more user roles that, when assumed by a user, confer permission for the user to create tasks of the task type; task requirements data representing one or more user roles and one or more indications of expertise that, when together possessed by a user, permit the user to be assigned to tasks of the task type; and a workplace identifier indicating the workplace of the task.

In the described embodiments, the workplace management system 100 constrains the creation of a task by a user, and the assignment of a particular user to a task, based on a set of permissions and a set of task requirements respectively, where the permissions and task requirements are determined by the corresponding task type of the task. Each task type entry defined by the task type table includes permissions data in the form of a list of user role identifiers corresponding to user roles recorded in the user role table that, when assumed by a user of the system, confer on that user permission to create a task of the task type. The task type entry also defines task requirements data in the form of a list of user role identifiers corresponding to user roles recorded in the user role table that, when assumed by user of the system, permit that user to be assigned to the task. Assignment of a user to the task also requires that the user's expertise rating values (i.e., the integer values recorded for each work category of the user's role) meet or exceed the corresponding indications of expertise represented by the task requirements data.

For example, a hospital "Hospital A" can be represented by a workplace database table 126 entry of [001, "Hospital A", 'hospital', "Large hospital"]. A nurse worker Kate Smith of Hospital A can be represented by a user database table 122 entry of [23, KSmith, 23j 5h99asdjjj , "Kate", "Smith", "1 Green Lane, Greenville, VIC, 3999", 'Nurse', <45, 24, 90> , 001]. For the 'hospital' workplace, the task type table may define a 'Room Transfer' task with an entry of [1235, "Room Transfer", "transferring a patient from one room to another", <23,54,12> , { 23, <33, 11 , 50>} .., 001], indicating that room transfer type tasks can be created by a nurse user with user role ID 23 (in addition to other users with user role IDs of 54 and 12). A nurse user can also claim a task of room transfer type, since the task requirements data permits the task to be claimed by users with a user role ID of 23, provided that the nurse user has expertise values equal to or greater than 33, 11 , and 50 for each of the "technical", "management" and "patient manner" categories described above. Therefore, in this example nurse Kate Smith could both create a room transfer task, and/or claim a room transfer task, irrespective of whether Kate created that particular room transfer task.

In the described embodiments of the workplace management system 100, the workplace management server 110 is implemented as one or more standard computer systems 200, such as, for example, an Intel Architecture computer system, as shown in Figure 2, and the processes executed by the system 200 are implemented as programming instructions of one or more software modules 202 stored on non-volatile (e.g., hard disk or solid-state drive) storage 204 associated with the computer system. However, it will be apparent that at least parts of these processes could alternatively be implemented as configuration data of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and/or as one or more dedicated hardware components, such as application- specific integrated circuits (ASICs), for example. Similarly, the user device 102 and the administrative user device 105 are implemented as one or more standard mobile computing devices, such as, for example, as mobile computer devices having a 32- or 64-bit Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) architecture (e.g., ARMvx), which operate analogously to the standard computing system 200 depicted in Figure 2.

The system 200 includes random access memory (RAM) 206, at least one processor 208, and external interfaces 210, 212, 214, all interconnected by a bus 216. The external interfaces include universal serial bus (USB) interfaces 210, at least one of which is connected to a keyboard 218 and a pointing device such as a mouse 219, a network interface connector (NIC) 212 which connects the system 200 to a communications network, such as the Internet, and a display adapter 214, which is connected to a display device such as an LCD or LED panel display 222. The system 200 also includes a number of standard software modules 226 to 230, including an operating system 224 such as Linux or Microsoft Windows, web server software 226 such as Apache (available at http://www.apache.org), scripting language support 228 such as JavaScript, PHP (available at h 11 : / / w w. hp.net), or Microsoft ASP, and structured query language (SQL) support 230 such as MySQL (available from h t ΐ p : / / w w w .m sqi.com ) or the real-time database service of Google Firebase, which allow data to be stored in and retrieved from an SQL database 125.

In the described embodiments, the user database table 122, task database table 124, and workplace database table 126 are stored within database 125, which is implemented using SQL and is accessed by a database management system (DBMS) of the workplace management server device 110. In other embodiments, the database 125 may be implemented on a separate computing device, or across multiple computing devices for the distributed processing and storage of data.

Process

The workplace management system 100 executes a workplace task management process 300, as shown in Figure 3, for the decentralised creation, assignment and completion of tasks associated with a particular workplace, by at least one processor performing, at a workplace management server, steps including: storing, in at least one database: user data representing users of the system, at least some of the users being workers who perform tasks at one or more workplaces; and task data representing tasks performed or to be performed by the workers at one or more of the workplaces, and, for each of the tasks, at least a corresponding task type, and a corresponding location of the task; generating user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on remote computing devices used by users of the system, the interactive user interface including:

(i) a list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by users of the system, and one or more corresponding interactive components operable by each of a plurality of users of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for the user to claim a selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the user intends to perform the selected task;

(ii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the user to indicate that the selected task has been completed by the user; and

responsive to the claim request, updating the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the user;

responsive to the close request, updating the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the user; and

Configuration, User Registration and Login

Figure 3 illustrates the process 300 of performing task management as conducted by the workplace management system 100. At step 301, the workplace management system 100 is configured for use by one or more users, such as user 101, as depicted in Figure 1. The configuration process involves the registration of user 101 with the workplace management system 100.

In the described embodiments, registration of each user is performed by the administrative user 103, via use of the administrative user device 105. The administrative user 103 is associated with a workplace from the one or more workplaces recorded within the system 100. The workplace management system 100 may be preconfigured to store data for the workplaces in which task management can be performed within the workplace database table 126, and data representing the administrative users 103 of each workplace in the user table 122. The workplace of a user 101 determines the tasks which the user 101 can create, claim (i.e., be assigned to perform) and complete within the workplace management system 100. Users are registered in association with the workplace of the administrative user 103 that performs the registration (as described below). The workplace management server 110 creates an entry in the user database table 122 to represent user 101 once the user is registered with the system 100. The administrative user 103 accesses a user registration function of the workplace management server 110 by transmitting a user registration request to the request handler 112 via communications network 116. In the described embodiments, registration of a user is performed via a "Create Staff" window 900, as shown in Figure 9, which is rendered on the user interface of the administrative user device 105. To perform user registration, the administrative user 103 provides information in relation to the user to be registered, including: the name of the user, including a first name and a last name (in the 'Name' field 904); an email address of the user that is to be for contacting the user (in the 'Email Address' field 902); and a password for the user (in the 'Password' field 906 and the 'Confirm Password' field 908). In some embodiments, the administrative user 103 can assign an employee number to the staff member on creation by entering the employee number into the field 903, as illustrated in Figure 9b. In other embodiments, an employee number may be assigned to the new staff member automatically by the system. In some embodiments, the employee number is equal to, or at least partially derived from, the username of the staff member. The workplace management server 110 may perform additional verification of the username and password values allocated to the user to be registered, in order to ensure that: the username value is unique among all usernames of the users that are presently registered with the system; and the password value satisfies one or more predetermined password security criteria which specify characteristics for cryptographically secure passwords.

The administrative user 103 selects a user role for the user to be registered from a list of user roles presented in a 'User role' list box 910. In the described embodiments, the user roles presented to the administrative user 103 for selection are the set of user roles associated with the workplace. In some embodiments, expertise values of the user to be registered can also be specified by the administrative user 103 at the time of registration, and based on the selected user role of this registered user. In other embodiments, the user is allocated default expertise values according to their user role. The administrative user 103 can complete the registration process via the "Add staff" button 912. Alternatively, the registration process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 914.

Registration of the user 101 involves the generation of a username which is used by the registered user, in combination with their password, to log into the workplace management system 100. In the described embodiments, the email address of a registered user is allocated as the username for that user. In other embodiments, the username is automatically determined by the combination of particular parts or subparts of the user's first and last name, and with an integer added to ensure uniqueness of the username (e.g., a user with a name of "Kate Smith" may be allocated the username of "ksmithOOI "). The username and password is stored in the user database table 122 in association with the other user information for user 101 , as determined during registration. The user password is stored in a secure form, such as a hash value as obtained by the application of a hashing function (e.g., SHA-1 ) to the plaintext representation of the password. On successful registration, the workplace management server 110 transmits registration notification data to the administrative user 103 (and/or user 101) indicating that the user 101 is registered with the workplace management system 100. The registration notification data is in a pre-determined form, such as a registration notification message, and includes the username and password combination of the registration. In embodiments where registration is performed by the administrative user 103, the administrative user 103 forwards this information to the user 101 such that the user 101 can operate the workplace management system 100.

The administrative user 103 can view a list of the registered users that are associated with the workplace via the "Staff List" window 1000, as shown in Figure 10. The list can include all of the users or only users of a selected role, as determined via a user role filter drop-down menu. In the described embodiments, each registered user is displayed in the staff list window 1000 as a staff member of the workplace. For each staff member, the Staff List window 1000 displays the name 1002, user role 1004, shift start time 1006, and one or more performance metrics 1008 selectable by the administrative user 103 for which the task management performance of the workplace is analysed (as described below). The administrative user 103 can edit the details of the registered user (i.e., the staff member) by interacting with an "Action" element 1010 in the Staff List window 1000. In some embodiments, the staff list window 1000 is rendered in a different format to that show in Figure 10a. For example, Figure 10b illustrates the staff list window 1000 where the fields are displayed according to a horizontally compact layout suitable for a small screen handheld computing device such as a smartphone. When rendered by the workplace management application, the compact layout may improve a user's experience when operating the workplace management application on a mobile device, such as for example, by increasing the amount of information that is visible on the mobile device screen. In some embodiments, the administrative user 103 can interact with the Staff List window 1000 illustrated in Figures 10a and 10b to obtain an indication of the performance of one or more staff members. Figure 10c illustrates a "Staff Performance" window 1020 which displays a graphical indication of one or more performance metrics of a selected staff member. The selected staff member, and the corresponding performance metrics that are to be displayed for the staff member, can be chosen by the administrative user 103 via the Staff List window 1000.

In the described embodiments, performance metrics that are displayed by the window 1020 include: i) an indication of the job type of the jobs completed by the staff member; ii) an indication of the number of jobs completed per shift by the staff member; and iii) an indication of the completion timing state of jobs that have been completed by the staff member. Exemplary completion timing states include: On time', representing the case in which the job was completed within an allowed time period; 'late', representing the case in which the job was completed after the allowed time period had lapsed; and 'very late', representing the case in which the job was completed after the allowed time period had lapsed, and where the difference between the completion time and the end time of the allowed time period exceeds a configurable threshold (e.g., where completion is 30 minutes or more after the lapse of the allowed period) .

In the described embodiments, the staff performance window 1020 provides a graphical indication of each of the "job types" 1022, "jobs per shift" 1024 and "jobs on time" performance metrics 1026 (as described above) for the selected staff member. The administrative user 103 can customise the time period over which the performance metrics are shown by selecting start {i.e., "From") and end {i.e., "To") dates for the performance analysis in date selection fields 1028. In some embodiments, the administrative user 103 can interact with the Staff List window 1000 to obtain an indication of the relative performance of one or more staff members with respect to selected performance metrics. A Staff Performance List window 1040 is displayed to the administrative user 103, juxtaposing indications of performance (such as, for example, graphs or numerical values) for given performance metrics over the selected staff members. Figure 10d illustrates a Staff Performance List Window 1040 which compares the relative performance of two staff members (in this example "Cleaner 111" and "Cleaner 222") with respect to the "Jobs on Time" performance metric. The window 1040 includes panels 1042, 1044 for the display of the information for the respective staff members, where each panel 1042, 1044 displays fields containing the name 1052, user role 1054, username or employee ID 1055 of the staff member, and the performance metrics 1058 selected for the comparison.

Figure 11 shows an "Edit Staff" window 1100 through which the administrative user 103 can edit the email address 1102, name 1104, and user role 1106 currently associated with the registered user. The administrative user 103 can operate a "Reset Password" button 1108 to replace the current password of the registered user with a new password provided by the administrative user 103. Prior performing the password change operation, the system 100 performs a verification process to ensure that the new password satisfies one or more predetermined password security criteria, as described above. The administrative user 103 can save the newly entered details for the registered user via the "Save staff" button 1110. Alternatively, the changes made during the editing process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1112.

Access to the workplace management system functionality, as described below, requires the user 101 to log into the workplace management system 100. In the described embodiments, a user 101 logs into the system 100 using a "Login" window 1200, as shown in Figure 12, which is rendered on the user interface 104 of the user device 102. The user 101 enters their username (i.e., which is their email address or employee number in the described embodiments of the system 100) into the field 1202, and their corresponding plaintext password into the field 1204. Authentication of the user 101 with a workplace management system 100 is achieved by the transmission of the username and password value (in hashed form) from the communications module 106 of the user device 102 to the request handler 112 of the workplace management server 110. The request handler 112 verifies the received username and password values with corresponding values stored in the user database table 122, and on positive verification provides the user device 102 with an authentication token that is used to authenticate any future requests made by the user 101. The system 100 is configured to provide the user 101 with the option to reset their password via the 'Forgot Password' element 1208 of the window 1200.

Creating a Task

Returning to the task management process of Figure 3, following configuration at step 301 , at step 302, the user 101 creates a task for management by the workplace management system 100. Figure 4 illustrates the process 302 of creating a task. At step 402, the workplace management server 110 receives task creation request data from the user device 102. The task creation request data is created by the workplace management client application 104 in response to a task creation operation initiated by the user 101. The task creation request data includes task parameter data specifying one or more parameters for the task to be created by the workplace management server 110. The task parameter data includes task type data representing an indication of the type of task as chosen from the task types that are associated with the workplace of the user 101.

Figures 13 - 13 i illustrate various window elements rendered on the Ul 104 of the user device 102 by the workplace management client application 104, through which the user 101 , and/or administrative user 103, can interact with the workplace management system to create a new task or job. Referring to the "Create Job" window element 1300 as shown in Figure 13, the user 101 can select the task type from the "Job type" element 1302, and can provide an indication of the room number for the task via the "Room" text box element 1304. Optionally, the user 101 can select an image to associate with the task by interacting with the "Upload or Take Photo" element 1303. In the described embodiments, the workplace management application allows the user to select an image file of a common format (e.g., JPG, BMP, IMG, or PNG) for uploading via a standard file selection dialog window (not shown). The user can interact with the file selection dialog window in order to select the image file from a local source (such as the hard disk 204 of the user device), or from a remote source (e.g., a networked file storage location). The selected image file is uploaded to the workplace management server. Following the upload of the selected image file, the image represented by the image file is displayed by the element 1303, as shown in Figure 13b. The user 101 can remove the associated image by clicking on the "Remove" button 1303. Optionally, textual information can be associated with the task in the form of a job note. The user 101 can enter text, such as for example a description of the task and/or some of its requirements, into the Job Note element 1305 during the creation of the task. The user 101 can complete the task creation process via the "Create Job" button 1306. Alternatively, the task creation process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1308.

The task creation process involves the selection of a job type for the task to be created from a pull down menu 1302 that lists the available job types in the Create Job window 1300, as illustrated in Figure 13c. The list is populated based on the Job Types that are currently registered (as described below). In some embodiments, the menu 1302 is dynamically populated based on the properties of the user 101 and/or the task to be created. For example, particular Job Types may not be compatible with the room selected for the task that is to be created, and these job types will not appear in the list.

Job Types that are registered with the system can be viewed by the user 101 via a "Job Type List" window 1320, as shown in Figure 13d. Each registered job type is displayed in the job types window 1320 , including the job type name 1322, the job type ID 1324, the job type priority 1326, the time period in which the task is completed such that the completion timing state is "on time" (i.e., "Green") 1328 and "late" (i.e., "Orange") 1330 respectively (as described above), and the roles of staff members that are allowed to claim the task 1332. The time period values are represented in minutes in the described embodiments. Figure 13e illustrates an alternative "Job Type List" window 1338 which displays job type information according to a compact layout as described above. In the alternative Job Type List window 1338 shown the job type priority value 1326, the time period values 1328, 1330, and the allowed roles 1332 are not displayed to the user 101.

Figure 13f illustrates a "Create Job Type" window 1340 that is presented to the administrative user 103 allowing the administrative user to create a new Job Type by specifying properties including: one or more roles that are allowed to claim a task of this job type 1342; a name of the job type 1344; a job identifier 1346; a job priority value 1348; and an allowed time period in minutes (commencing from creation) for which tasks of the job type must be completed in order for the completion timing state to be "on time" 1350 and "late" 1352. In the described embodiments, the job priority is an integer value from 1 to 5 inclusive, with higher values indicting greater priority for the purpose of the task claiming processes described herein. The user 103 can complete the job type creation process via the "Create Job Type" button 1356. Alternatively, the job type creation process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1354.

The administrative user 103 can edit the details of a registered job type by interacting with an "Action" element 1334 in the Job Type List window 1320. Figure 13g illustrates an "Edit Job Type" window 1360 that allows the administrative user 103 to edit a particular registered Job Type. The Edit Job Type window 1360 includes fields that display the current values of the job type properties including: one or more roles corresponding to the roles of staff members that are allowed to claim a task of this job type 1362; a name of the job type 1364; a job priority value 1368; and an allowed time period in minutes (commencing from task creation) for which a task of the job type must be completed in order for the completion timing state to be "on time" 1370 and "late" 1372, as described above. The job type ID value remains fixed after the creation of the job in the described embodiments. The user 103 can complete the job type editing process via the "Save Job Type" button 1376. Alternatively, the job type editing process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1374.

Referring to Figures 13f and 13g, the roles that are available for selection in the "Select Roles" field 1342 and 1362 of the Create Job Type 1340 and Edit Job Type 1360 windows include one or more of the roles that are presently registered with the system at the time of job type creation or editing. The administrative user 103 can operate the workplace management system to create a new role via the "Create Role" window 1380, as shown in Figure 13h. The administrative user 103 can specify a name for the new role in the Role Name field 1382, an identifier in the Role ID field 1384, and a level of the role. In the described embodiments, the role level is a value from 1 to 3 as indicated via the Role Level element 1386. Level 1 roles possess the ability to define and edit other roles, job types, staff and job list entries. Level 2 roles can create and modify staff and job (i.e. task) entries, and can create, claim and close tasks in accordance with the processes described herein. Level 3 roles can only claim and close tasks. The user 103 can complete the role creation process via the "Create Role" button 1388. Alternatively, the role creation process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1389.

The staff roles that have been successfully created are viewable via a "Roles List" window 1390, as shown in Figure 13i. For each role, the Roles List window 1390 displays the corresponding role name 1392, role ID 1396, and role level 1398. The administrative user 103 can edit the details of a role by interacting with an "Action" element 1394 in the Role List window 1390.

The task creation request is processed by the request handler module 112 of the workplace management server 110 to verify the authenticity of the request. At step 404, the request handler module 112 extracts user data, including username and password information of the user 101, from the task creation request data. The username value is compared to corresponding usernames within entries of the user table to determine whether the request was made by user who is validly registered with the system 100. If a corresponding entry is found, the hash value of the stored password for this corresponding entry is compared to the password value included within the task creation request. If the values are identical, the user 101 is authenticated. The request handler module 112 passes the task request data to the task creator module 114 to determine the validity of the task creation request made the user 101 (i.e., the "creating user").

In the described embodiments, the task creator module 114 processes the user data of the creating user ("creating user data") and the task type data to determine the validity of the task creation request by: processing the creating user data to determine the user role of the creating user; processing the task (i.e. job) type data to determine the corresponding permission data; and determining whether the creating user has permission to create the task based on a comparison of each of the one or more user roles specified by the permission data with the particular user role of the creating user. At step 406, the task creator module 114 retrieves user role data and corresponding expertise value data from the user database table 122 for the user 101. The task creator module 114 validates the task creation request data by accessing the task database table 124 to retrieve the permission data based on the task type of the task requested for creation. At step 414, the task creation request is determined to be valid if the user role of the user 101 matches to one of the permitted user roles specified by the permission data.

If the task creation request is valid, at step 412 the task creator module 114 generates new task data that represents the newly created task within the workplace management system 100. The task database table 124 is updated with the newly created task data by the creation of a new entry in the task table. In the described embodiments, the task creation request data contains task parameter data that specifies the task name, task description, and task type, as well as any relevant attributes of the task based on this type.

The task creator module 114 sets the creating user identifier of the task to the user identifier of creating user 101, as recorded in the corresponding user table entry, and initialises the values of the task status data. Specifically, the creation time field of the task status data is set to the current time and date is maintained by the workplace management server 110, and the task status and state values are set to 'active' and 'unclaimed', indicating that the task can be claimed by a user, or have a user designated to it, according to the processes described herein below. Following the creation of the entry in the task table, the workplace management server 110 generates task creation notification data representing an indication that the task is created, and transmits task creation notification data to the user device 102 of the user 101, at step 414. The task creation notification data is in a predetermined form, such as, for example, a task creation message.

In some embodiments, the user creating a new task can specify additional task attributes, including a task activation time (to allow the scheduling of tasks so that they become available to be claimed at times specified by the creating user), a task claiming period (to allow multiple workers to claim a task until the task period expires), whether the task claiming period extends from the time that the task is activated (i.e., becomes available for claiming) or the time at which the task is first claimed by worker, and the number of workers that can perform a task (in cases where a task requires more than one worker to perform). The use of these task attributes is described further below.

A location is associated with each task as determined by the task creator module 114 at the time of task creation. The task location is represented by task location data stored in the 'location' field of the corresponding entry in the task database table 124. The task location data can be received from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), such as a global positioning system (GPS), that provides geolocation information representing a position on the surface of the Earth. The task location data can be in the form of a set of standard 2-D or 3-D GPS coordinate values that specify the physical location at which task is to be performed (or commenced, if the task involves relocation by the user(s) undertaking the task in the workplace, such as for a "patient transfer" task).

User location data is associated with the user device 102 of each user 101 in the workplace management system 100, which represents the location of the user 101 within the workplace. In described embodiments the user location data is stored in the user database table 122, and represents a set of GPS coordinate values, as described above for the task location data. In embodiments where each user device 102 is a mobile computing device, the user location data of each user device 102 can be periodically updated by the use of one or more standard techniques for determining the GPS location of a mobile device via a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) network, or a wireless network based on any of the IEEE 802.11x standards (i.e., a 'Wi-Fi' network). In other embodiments where each user device 102 is a fixed computing device (such as a desktop terminal), each user device 102 is manually configured to store user location data in the form of GPS coordinate values which represent the fixed location of the device within the workplace.

The workplace management system 100 receives, from each user device 102, user location update data representing the user location data currently maintained by the user device 102. Specifically, each user device 102 periodically transmits user location update data, in the form of a location update message of a predetermined form, to the workplace management server 110. The location update message is processed by the task assigner module 116 to determine the physical location of each user device 102, and therefore of the user 101. The location determined for each user 101 can be an absolute location, or a relative location obtained by resolving the absolute location of the user to a mapping of the topography of the workplace. The task assigner module 116 processes the task location data, and the user location data of the user to determine a measure of the proximity of the user to task. The measure of proximity can be the user-to-task minimum distance, calculated as the Euclidean distance between the user and task locations.

In other embodiments, the task assigner module 116 uses knowledge of the layout and/or topography of the workplace, based on data stored in the workplace database table 126, in order to calculate the proximity value based on the shortest available path between the user and the task.

In some embodiments, the workplace management server 110 maintains an indication of the urgency with which a task needs to be completed within a particular workplace. Task urgency is represented by a 'priority' value, in the form of an integer stored within the task status data of the task database table 124, where higher values indicate a greater urgency for the particular task to be completed. The priority value of each task may be determined based on a predetermined default priority associated with the task type of the task. Alternatively, or in addition, the priority of the task may be set at the time of task creation by the creating user.

Assigning a User to a Task

With reference to Figure 3, a user can be assigned to the task created at step 302 by the workplace management system 100, either as a result of that user validly claiming the task (i.e., at step 304) themselves, or due to the designation of the user to the task (i.e., at step 305) by another user with sufficient permissions to do so, or automatically by the system. In the described embodiments, a user can only be assigned to a task that is in the 'active' state, as represented by the state value of the task status data, and only a single user can be assigned to a particular task. In other embodiments, tasks managed by the system may have multiple assigned users, and in such embodiments the task remains in the 'active' state (i.e. as "unclaimed" for the purpose of allowing users to claim the task or for task designation, as described below) until a required minimum number of users are assigned to the task. The task status data includes the user identifiers of all assigned users, and corresponding date- time values of when each user was assigned to the task, and when each assigned user indicated completion of the task. The workplace management system 100 can assign a user to a task via a task claiming process that involves: receiving, at the workplace management server 110, task claim request data representing a request for the user to be assigned to the task, the request made by the user and irrespective of whether the user and the creating user are the same user; accessing, by the workplace management server 110, user data of the user from the and task data of the task from the database; processing, by the workplace management server the user data and the task data to determine whether the user can be assigned to the task; and generating, by the workplace management server 110 and if user can be assigned to the task, task claim data to update the database to store data assigning the user to the task.

Figure 5 illustrates the process performed by the workplace management server 110 when a task managed by the system 100 is claimed by a user (the "claiming user"). The workplace management server 110 receives task claim request data from the user device 102, at step 502. The task claim request data is generated by the workplace management client application 104 executing on the user device 102 of the claiming user, and includes an identifier of the task and the relevant user authentication information to authenticate the claiming user, as described above. The claiming user can be the user 101 who created the task, or any other user of the workplace management system 100. Following verification of claiming user authentication credentials by the request handler module 112, the task claim request data is processed by the task assigner module 116 of the workplace management server 110. The task assigner module 116 determines the user data of the claiming user ("claiming user data") from the corresponding entry of the user database table 122 to determine the user role and expertise data of the claiming user, at steps 504 and 506 (as described above for steps 404 and 406).

At step 508, the task assigner module 116 determines whether the claiming user can be assigned to the task by validating the task claim request. The task claim request validation process involves accessing the task database table to determine task requirements data corresponding to the task type of the claim task. The claimed task is specified in the task claim request by a task identifier value, which is used by the task assigner module 116 to index the task database table 124, and access the corresponding task entry. At step 510, the task assigner module 116 determines the validity of the task claim request by: processing the claiming user data to determine: the user role of the claiming user; and the indication of the user expertise of the claiming user; processing the task data to determine task requirements data of the corresponding task type of the task; and determining whether the claiming user is permitted to be assigned to the task, based on whether the user role of the claiming user matches to a user role of the task requirements data and whether the indications of user expertise of the claiming user equal or exceed the corresponding indications of user expertise of the task requirements data.

That is, the task claim request is determined to be valid if the user role of the claiming user matches one of the user roles specified by the task requirements data, and if the claiming user has expertise values for each work category of their user role that equal or exceed the expertise values specified by the task requirements data. In the described embodiments, the processing of the task data by the task assigner module 116 includes determining whether the task is in an 'active' state, such that the claiming user can be assigned to the task.

If the task claim request is valid, then at step 512 the task assigner module 116 generates task claim data to represent the assignment of the claiming user to the task. The task database table 124 is updated with the task claim data by the modification of the table entry for the task. The task status data of the task is updated to store the user identifier of the claiming user within the 'assigned user identifier' field, and a corresponding date-time value is recorded to indicate when the assignment of the claiming user to the task occurred. The task state is set to 'in progress' indicating that the task can no longer be assigned further users, and is awaiting completion. In the described embodiments, the updating of the task database table 124 during a task claim request, and subsequent assignment of a claiming user to the task, involves an update process, at step 513. The update process 513 prevents the assignment of a greater number of users to a task than the predetermined number of users required to perform that task, such as may otherwise occur when two or more users request to claim the task at the same time.

In the described embodiments, the update process 513 involves the task assigner module 116 generating, for each created task, data indicative of a corresponding claiming period for that task, wherein the task remains 'active' (and therefore in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed by a user, in accordance with the process described below) even if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task until an elapsed time is at least equal to the corresponding claiming period. The task assigner module 116 determines the elapsed time of the task either from a creation time of the task, or from a time when the task was first claimed, relative to the current time maintained by the workplace management server 110. For example, for a task with a claiming period of 5 minutes assessed from the time of creation (both criteria having been specified by the user who created the task), if the task was created at 12:00pm, then the task assigner module 116 accepts claim requests for the task until the claiming period ends at 12:05pm. The default claiming criteria is a claiming period of 0 starting from the time of first claiming, meaning that the first worker to claim the task is assigned to that task. The task claiming period can be specified by the creating user, or automatically determined based on a mapping between the attributes of the task, as represented by the corresponding task data, and one or more predetermined claiming period values defined by the task assigner module 116. For example, the task assigner module 116 can be configured to allocate a larger claiming period to multiple worker tasks, compared to single worker tasks, where the claiming period value allocated is increased in proportion to the number of workers required to perform the task (e.g. 4 minutes for a task requiring 2 workers, 8 minutes for a task requiring 4 workers, etc.). The allocation of a claiming period value to a task may also depend on other factors, such as, for example task type and/or priority. Alternatively, or in addition, the claiming period values that are to be allocated to particular tasks can be dynamically calculated and/or adjusted based on task management performance statistics generated by the server 110, as discussed below. For example, the task assigner module 116 may utilise data representing the average time taken for tasks of a particular type to transition from the 'active' to 'in progress' states, as produced by the analysis module 120, to set or modify the claiming period allocated to tasks of that type.

If a task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task, then the update process 513 includes selecting workers to perform the task from the workers who have claimed the task based, at least in part, on attributes of the workers who have claimed the task. The user attributes considered during the selection process can include: (i) a location of each worker relative to a location of the task; and (ii) a role or expertise of each worker; and (iii) an indication of the past performance of each worker. In the described embodiments, the task assigner module 116 selects the user to be assigned to the task by processing the corresponding user data of each of the claiming users, and the task data of the task, to produce a corresponding "task claim score" for each user. The task claim score of a user indicates the degree of utility provided by assigning that user to the task, with a higher score indicating that there is increased benefit associated with assigning the user to the task, compared to assigning another user with a lower task claim score to the task.

For example, the workplace management server 110 may receive, within the claiming period, requests to claim a particular single worker task of the "Sanitise Room" task type (requiring a "Nurse" with minimum expertise values of < 10, 20, 35>) from three individual users A, B and C. Users A, B and C are each of the "Nurse" user role, have expertise values of <11, 41, 52> , <15, 38, 45> and <13, 41, 65> , and relative ("best-path") distances of 10m, 14m, and 49m to the task location respectively. The task claim score for each user can, for example, be calculated by: determining a qualification sub-score as the sum of the squared differences between the user's expertise values and the corresponding minimum expertise requirements of the task (i.e. A = 731; B = 2034; C = 3995); and dividing the qualification sub-score by the 1 + distance value (i.e. A = 731/11 = 66.4; B = 2034/15 = 135.6; C = 3995/50 = 79.9), such that the highest score is obtained by user B.

Other embodiments may combine expertise and location based sub-scores, such as those produced according to the above example, with task management performance analysis data of each of the users. For example, a performance sub-score may be produced, by the analysis module 120, to quantify the average completion time of users A, B and C as 40.5 mins, 30.3 mins, and 16.7 mins respectively, for Sanitise Room task types. Combining the performance sub-score with the expertise and location sub-scores in the above example may result in the assignment of user C to the task instead of user B (i.e. due to their significantly higher historical performance on similar tasks compared to the other users). Performing the selection based on this process results in the assignment of the best qualified and closest user among a plurality of claiming users competing for a particular task.

Following the update of the task status data to assign one or more of the claiming user(s) (each of which now being an "assigned user" with respect to the task) to the task, the workplace management server 110 generates task claim notification data indicating that the task has been successfully claimed by the assigned user, and transmits the task claim notification data to the user device of the assigned user at step 514.

In the case that the task is designated to a particular user (the "designated user"), as at step 305 of Figure 3, the assignment of the designated user to the task proceeds as described above for the process 304 of claiming a task. However, the designation of the task involves the workplace management server 110 receiving, instead of task claim request data, task designation request data representing the designation of the task to the designated user. In the described embodiments, task designation can be performed by an administrative user 103 by a specific "designate task" operation accessed by the user interface of the administrative user device 105. Successful designation of a task to a designated user (who subsequently becomes an "assigned user" with respect to the task) requires that the designated user have appropriate user role and expertise values as specified by the task requirements data, as described above for the task claiming process 304. Automatic Assignment of Users to Tasks

In some embodiments, the task designation process 305 can involve the workplace management system 100 automatically assigning one or more users to a task that is in the 'active' or 'in progress' state. An administrative user 103 of a workplace can activate the automatic assignment of users to tasks for the workplace via an interface option in the workplace management client application. When the automatic assignment functionality is activated for a workplace, the workplace management server 110 can assign one or more users to a task of the workplace without the requirement of any user claiming that task, and without the administrative user 103 manually designating any particular user to the task. The administrative user 103 can specify particular task types for which automatic assignment of users will occur at a time following the creation of a corresponding task of that type. For example, the administrative user 103 can identify particular tasks as "operation critical" with respect to their workplace (e.g., preparing an emergency room), and can activate automatic assignment such that appropriate users are automatically assigned to any task of the identified task types.

The workplace management server 110 invokes the task assigner module 116 to perform automatic assignment of users to tasks. The task assigner module 116 processes the task data of the task for which users are to be automatically assigned, and the user data of one or more registered users, to determine whether a particular one of the one or more registered users can be assigned to the task. The assignment of a particular registered user to the task is determined based on one or more of: the expertise of the particular user in comparison to the corresponding expertise requirements of the task; the task management performance of the particular user; and the location at which the task is to be performed in relation to that of the user.

In the described embodiments, the automatic assignment of a user to a task requires that the expertise values of the user, for each work category associated with the user role (as described above), are equal to or exceed the corresponding expertise values for the task type of the task. The task assigner module 116 processes task management performance data associated with the user to determine whether or not to assign the user to the task. For example, the task assigner module 116 may process task analysis metric data (as generated by the analysis module 120, according to the processes described herein below) in order to predict the likely efficiency with which the user could complete the task, if the user were to be assigned to the task. For example, the task assigner module 116 can process data such as the number of tasks presently claimed by the user that are not yet completed, the average task completion time, and/or any other metrics relating to the historical task management performance of the user, in order to determine whether or not to assign the user to the task. In some embodiments, the workplace management system 100 can automatically assign users to a task based on the location at which the task is performed in relation to the current location of one or more registered users of the workplace. The task assigner module 116 can also assign users to a task based on a measure of the proximity of the user to the task (calculated as discussed above). For example, in a hospital workplace, assigning a user to the "prepare emergency room" task may involve the task assigner module 116 processing map data of the hospital to determine that a first user is actually farther away from the relevant emergency room where the task is to be performed as compared to a second user, despite the Euclidean distance between the first user's position and the emergency room being smaller than the corresponding distance value of the second user (such as, for example, in a situation where the first user is on a floor above or below the emergency room). In this case the task assigner module 116 would assign the second user to the "prepare emergency room" task in preference to the first user. Alternatively, or in addition, the task assigner module 116 can process the priority value of a task to determine whether to automatically assign users to the task. The task assigner module 116 can delay the commencement of the automatic assignment process, such that the automatic assignment of registered users to a task commences if the task does not have assigned (i.e., via user claiming, or designation by an administrative user 103) the number of users required to complete the task after the expiry of a prescribed period. The prescribed period is predetermined based on the priority of the task, where a shorter period is allocated to tasks of higher priority (e.g., 2 hours for a task with priority Ί ', and 5 minutes for a task with priority Ί 0').

Selecting a Task to Claim

In the described embodiments, the user 101 claims a task managed by the workplace management system 100 by the use of the user device 102.

Figure 6 illustrates the process 600 performed by the user device 102 when user 101 requests to claim a task. At step 602, a task filtering process is performed to identify tasks managed by the system which are eligible to be claimed by the user 101. As described above, in the described embodiments a task is eligible to be claimed by a user, or to have a user designated to it, if the state variable of the corresponding task status data is set to 'active'. The workplace management client application is allows the user 101 to filter tasks based on one or more search criteria, such as for example the task state, and/or the value of one or more attributes associated with the task. At step 604, the workplace management client application 104 requests task data from the workplace management server 110 representing one or more tasks which match to the search criteria applied during the task filtering process 602. The request for task data includes one or more task search parameter representing the one or more search criteria, and corresponding search values, applied during the filtering process 602. The request handler module 112 processes the request and searches the task database 124 to retrieve task data corresponding to candidate tasks that meet the particular task search criteria values specified by the task search parameters. The request handler module 112 generates task data in the form of workplace task information which represents the candidate tasks, including, for each candidate task, a task identifier, task name, task creation time, and task type.

At step 606, the user device 102 receives the task data from the workplace management server 110 in the form of a task update message. The workplace management client application automatically transmits task requests using a default, or user customised, set of task search parameters, and to receive updated workplace task information from the workplace management server 110 in response.

For example, a user 101 with a 'nurse' user role can customise her or his home view of the workplace management client application 104 to automatically retrieve workplace task information representing tasks that are active and unclaimed, and that she can validly claim, based on her or his role as a nurse and her expertise values in relation to the expertise requirements of the currently active tasks managed by the system 100. This can be in the form of a list of unclaimed tasks, including one or more single worker tasks, each of which is to be performed by a worker, and/or one or more multiple worker tasks, each of which is to be performed by a plurality of workers. Each unclaimed tasks remains available to be claimed until the task has been claimed by a corresponding number of the workers at least equal to the corresponding predetermined number for the task (as discussed above). The list of tasks presented to the user 101 can be automatically updated by requesting task data from the workplace management server 110 according to a predetermined period (such as, for example, every 30 seconds). This ensures that the user 101 is constantly provided with an updated representation of the tasks managed by the system 100.

At step 608, the user device 102 displays, on the user interface 104, the workplace task information representing one or more tasks of the task data received from the workplace management server 110. At step 610, the user 101 interacts with one or more task selection elements of the user interface 104 to select a displayed task to claim. The workplace management client application 104 generates task claim request data, and transmits the task claim request data to the workplace management server 110 (at step 612). The task claim request data is processed by the workplace management server 110, at step 304 as described above. At step 614, the user device 102 receives task claim confirmation data from the workplace management server 110 indicating the success of the task claim request (and therefore the assignment of the user 101 to the selected task), or otherwise. Figure 14a illustrates a "Jobs" window element 1400 displaying the candidate tasks returned by the system 100 as a result of the task filtering process 602. For each displayed task, the Jobs window 1400 displays the task type 1402, the values of each task attribute (such as the room location for tasks associated with a hospital workplace) 1404, the task creation date-time value 1406, an indication of the one or more users assigned to the task 1408, and the date-time values of when each assigned user was assigned to the task 1410. The Jobs window 1400 contains "Action" interface elements 1412 allowing the user to claim particular displayed tasks by operating a 'CLAIM' button in the described embodiments, and interface elements 1413 allowing the user to edit a particular displayed task (as described below). Figure 14b illustrates an alternative "Jobs" window 1420 which displays task information in a compact layout, as described above. In the described embodiments, the Jobs window 1420 displays only the task type 1402, the values of each task attribute (e.g., the room location) 1404, and the Action interface elements 1412 that allow the user to claim particular displayed tasks, and edit tasks 1413. As described above, each task (or job) may have associated: a textual description in the form of a note; and/or an image. The image and/or job note are determined during task creation, as described above. In some embodiments, users of the workplace management system can view the job note and image by selecting the corresponding entry from the Jobs window 1400, 1420. On selecting a task from the Jobs window, the user 101 is presented with a "Job Summary" window 1440, as shown in Figure 14c. The Job Summary window displays the task type 1442, the values of each task attribute 1444 (e.g. room location), the task creation date-time value 1446, an indication of the one or more users that are assigned to the task 1448, and the date-time values of when each assigned user was assigned to the task 1450. The Job summary window 1440 contains a commentary pane 1452 which displays the text of the job note 1453. The commentary pane can be configured to display comments 1454 made by one or more users in association with the task. A user can associate one or more comments with the task by entering text into the text field 1455 and operating the "Add comment" button 1456 of the Job Summary window 1440. In some embodiments, the user comments can include one or more images that can be selected from corresponding image files (according to the process described above) via an add image icon 1457. The images are uploaded for association with the task when the comment is added via the "Add Comment" button 1456, and the image is then displayed within the commentary pane 1452 in addition to any comment text.

For example, a user 101 can a add comment to the task for the purpose of describing their progress towards completing the task, or to publicise any issues in relation to the task. Comments added to a task are displayed on the commentary pane 1452 in realtime, allowing a discussion to take place between users in relation to the task (as shown in Figures 14c and 14d). Any user who can view the task in the Jobs window is able to add a comment to the task, even if the task has been claimed by some other user. The commentary pane 1452 is also configured to display a comment time-stamp value 1451 indicating the time at which the comment was added to a task. A date- time value is recorded for each comment representing the time when the comment was associated with the task, and the comment time-stamp is in the form of the elapsed time in minutes relative to the recorded date-time value. The comment time- stamp value 1451 is displayed in the commentary pane 1452, as shown in Figures 14c and 14d, and is dynamically updated at pre-determined intervals (e.g. every minute).

The Jobs windows 1400 can be configured to additionally display an indication of the job note, user comment, and image information associated with each managed task. Figure 14e illustrates such a Jobs window 1460 which displays, in addition to the information displayed by the Jobs window 1400 of Figure 14, a graphical indication of: i) whether there are any comments associated with the task; and ii) if so, the number of comments that are associated with the task, via the comment icon 1462. The window 1460 is also configured to display one or more image icons 1464 representing corresponding images that are associated with the task.

In the case where the user 101 is unable to claim a particular task that is displayed (such as, for example, where the user 101 does not satisfy the expertise requirements), the workplace management client application 108 can disable (or hide entirely) the claim button, and/or provide a visual indication of the inability of the user 101 to claim the particular task. The Jobs window 1400 also contains a 'create task' interface element 1414 such that a user can create a new task without navigating away from the task display of the Jobs window 1400. In some embodiments, the Jobs window element 1400 displays additional information in relation to each candidate task, such as: the location at which the candidate task is to be performed, either in the form of an absolute location or relative to the workplace topography; the proximity of the user 101 to the candidate task (calculated as described herein above); and/or the priority value of the candidate task. This allows the user 101 to select and claim particular displayed tasks that are physically closest to the user and/or that are most urgently in need of completion, such that the user 101 can maximise their productivity within the workplace.

Figure 15 illustrates an "Edit Job" window element 1500 rendered on the Ul 104 of the user device 102 by the workplace management client application 104, through which the user 101 can edit a new task. The user 101 can modify the task type from the "Job type" element 1502, and can modify the room number via the "Room" text box element 1504. The user 101 can complete the task editing process via the "Save Job" button 1506. Alternatively, the task editing process may be cancelled via the "Cancel" button 1508.

Completing a Task

With reference to Figure 3, the completion of a task managed by the workplace management system 100 can be indicated by an assigned user of the task marking the task as completed or 'closed' at step 306. Figure 7 illustrates the task completion process performed by the workplace management server 110. Task completion indication data is received, at step 702, by the workplace management server 110 representing an indication that a particular task has been completed, where the task completion indication data is received from a user device 102 via the communications network 116. In the described embodiments, a task completion indication is valid if the user providing the completion indication (the "completing user") is an assigned user for that task. In this case, the task completion data is generated by the workplace management client application 104 executing on the user device 102 of the assigned user, and includes an identifier of the task that is indicated as completed, and the assigned user's authentication credentials, as described above. Following the verification of the assigned user's authentication credentials, the request handler module 112 passes the task completion indication data to the task completer module 118 of the workplace management server 110. The task completer module 118 extracts the user identifier and task identifier values for the completing user and the task, and accesses the task database table 124 to extract corresponding task entry data from the task table (at step 704).

At step 706, the task status data of the corresponding task entry is processed, and the validity of the task completion indication is assessed, at step 708, by comparing the user identifier value to the assigned user identifier value recorded within the task status data. If the completing user is verified as an assigned user, the task completer module 118 generates task completion data to represent the completion of the task. The task database table 124 is updated, at step 710, with the task completion data by the modification of the corresponding task table entry for the completed task. A completion data-time value is recorded to denote when the task was indicated as completed by the particular completing user. At step 712, the task completer module 118 generates task completion notification data indicating that the task has been recorded as complete (or otherwise), and transmits the task completion notification data to the user device 102 of the completing user. The user 101 claims a particular task by operating the "Action" interface elements 1412 (i.e., the 'CLAIM' button) associated with the task within the Jobs windows 1400, 1420, as shown in Figures 14 and 14b. Figure 16 illustrates a jobs window 1600 displayed on the Ul 104 of a user device 102 when the user 101 has claimed a particular "Clean Room TBA" task. For each displayed task, the Jobs window 1600 displays the task type 1602, the values of each task attribute (such as the room location for tasks associated with a hospital workplace) 1604, the task creation date- time value 1606, and an indication of the one or more users assigned to the task 1608, and the date-time values of when each assigned user was assigned to the task 1610. In the described embodiments, once a task is claimed by the user 101, the "Action" interface elements 1612 consist of a 'CLOSE' button, which can be operated by the user 101 to provide an indication to the workplace management server 110 that the task is now complete. In some embodiments, the "Action" interface elements 1412 also include a 'CANCEL' button which can be operated by the user 101 to cancel the task and remove it from the list of jobs. To cancel a task, some requirements or conditions may need to be met (such, as for example, the user 101 having the appropriate role and/or role level to cancel the task).

In embodiments where multiple users may be assigned to each task, a task is recorded as complete upon receipt of the first completion indication from any assigned user. For example, a task that has two assigned users will be recorded as complete on receipt of a valid task completion indication from either of the assigned users (i.e., when one of these users acts as a completing user, as described above). Furthermore, in these embodiments a task can be indicated as complete irrespective of the state of the task. In the above example, the task may be recorded as complete despite the task state being 'active' (i.e., where a valid completion indication is provided by a first assigned user even though a second user has not yet been assigned to the task). In other embodiments, a task is not recorded as complete by the workplace management server 110 until a task completion indication is received from each assigned user of the task.

Task Management Performance Analysis

With reference to Figure 3, at step 308 the workplace management system conducts a performance analysis process to assess the task management performance of one or more users of the system 100, with respect to a particular workplace. The system 100 can be configured to store, in the user table 122 of the database 125, closed task data representing, for each of a plurality of the users of the system, tasks that have been performed (i.e. completed and marked as "closed") by that particular user. For example, the closed task data may be in the form of a list, or other data structure, which refers to the task identifier values in the corresponding task table 124 of the tasks completed by the user. The closed task data for each user is processed to generate performance data representing, for the user, one or more statistical measures of the corresponding performance of the worker.

Figure 8 illustrates a performance analysis process 800 performed by the workplace management server 110. At step 802, performance analysis configuration is performed by an administrative user 103. The administrative user 103 operates the administrative user device 105 to select one or more analysis metrics that are applied during the performance analysis process. The administrative user 103 can also specify particular subsets of the task and/or user data stored by the system 100 for use by the performance analysis process. For example, the administrative user 103 can configure the analysis module 120 to analyse data corresponding to tasks completed by users of a particular user role, in order to obtain insight into the relative efficiency of each individual user assuming that role.

The analysis configuration process generates one or more analysis parameters representing the analysis configuration. The analysis parameters are maintained by the analysis module 120. At step 804, the analysis module 120 initiates the performance analysis process by processing the generated analysis parameters, and by accessing the user database table 122 and the task database table 124 in order to extract the respective user and task data that is required to conduct the analysis.

At step 806, the analysis module 120 generates task management performance data representing values for each analysis metric selected by the administrative user 103. For example, consider the case where the administrative user 103 selects analysis metrics including: average number of tasks assigned per shift; and average task completion time, as calculated for each user assuming a specified role and in association with a particular workplace. In this case, the analysis module 120 extracts, from the tasks database table 124, task entries corresponding to tasks that have assigned at least one user of the specified role for the workplace, collates these tasks based on the 'assigned user' field of the task status data, and calculates values for the average number of tasks assigned and average task completion time metrics accordingly. In other embodiments, the administrative user 103 can configure the analysis module 120 to perform advanced analysis techniques on the user, task and/or workplace data of the respective database tables 122, 124 and 126, such as, for example, statistical analysis and pattern classification.

At step 808, the analysis module 120 generates task management report data representing a report of the calculated analysis metric values of the task management performance data. The task management report data is transmitted to the user device 102 of the user 101, or to the administrative user device 105 of an administrative user 103, in response to a request from the user 101 (or the administrative user 103) to view the task management performance of one or more users of the workplace management system 100. Many modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A workplace task management system, including:

at least one database storing:

a workplace management server coupled to the database, and including:

at least one network interface to receive data from a communications network;

at least one computer processor; and

at least one network interface to receive data from a communications network;

at least one computer processor; and

wherein, responsive to the claim request, the server updates the task data to indicate the claiming of the selected task by the worker; (ii) one or more interactive components operable by the user to cause the generation of a close request to close a task previously claimed by the worker to indicate that the selected task has been completed by the worker; wherein, responsive to the close request, the server updates the task data to indicate that the selected task has been performed by the worker; and

wherein, responsive to the create task request, the server updates the task data so that the list of unclaimed tasks in the interactive user interface includes the new task.

2. The workplace task management system of claim 1 , wherein the unclaimed tasks include one or more multiple worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a corresponding predetermined number of the workers, and each of the multiple worker tasks remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed until the multiple worker task has been claimed by a corresponding number of the workers at least equal to the corresponding predetermined number.

3. The workplace task management system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the unclaimed tasks include one or more single worker tasks each of which is to be performed by any one of the workers, and each of the single worker tasks is removed from the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed if the single worker task has been claimed.

4. The workplace task management system of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the task data includes, for each of a plurality of the tasks, data indicative of a corresponding claiming period, wherein the task remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed even if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task until an elapsed time is at least equal to the corresponding claiming period.

5. The workplace task management system of claim 4, wherein the elapsed time is from a creation time of the task or from a time when the task was first claimed.

. The workplace task management system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than a number of workers required to perform the task, then the process includes automatically selecting workers to perform the task from the workers who have claimed the task based, at least in part, on attributes of the workers who have claimed the task.

. The workplace task management system of claim 6, wherein the attributes of the workers include one or more of:

(i) a location of each worker relative to a location of the task; and

(ii) a role or expertise of each worker; and

(iii) an indication of the past performance of each worker.

. The workplace task management system of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the user data for each worker includes data representing a role or expertise of the worker, and the task data includes, for each corresponding task, data representing a role or expertise required by the task, wherein a worker is only able to claim a task if the role or expertise of the worker matches or exceeds the role or expertise required by the task.

. The workplace task management system of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the user data includes closed task data representing, for each of a plurality of the workers, tasks performed by the worker, and the process includes processing the closed task data for each worker to generate worker performance data representing one or more statistical measures of the corresponding performance of the worker.

0. The workplace task management system of claim 9, wherein the one or more statistical measures include, one or more measures of:

(i) a number of tasks completed per shift;

(ii) a task completion time; and

(iii) independent assessments of the performance of the tasks.

11. The workplace task management system of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the one or more corresponding interactive components are operable by at least one of the users of the system to cause the generation of a claim request for a selected worker who is not the at least one user to claim the selected one of the tasks in the list to indicate that the selected worker is to perform the selected task;

wherein, responsive to the claim request, the server updates the task data to indicate the assigning of the selected task to the worker.

12. A workplace task management process executed by at least one processor of a workplace management system, the process including the steps of:

storing, in at least one database:

generating user interface data representing an interactive user interface for display on computing devices of the system, the interactive user interface including:

13. The workplace task management process of claim 12, wherein the unclaimed tasks include one or more multiple worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a corresponding predetermined number of the workers, and each of the multiple worker tasks remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed until the multiple worker task has been claimed by a corresponding number of the workers at least equal to the corresponding predetermined number.

14. The workplace task management process of claim 12 or 13, wherein the unclaimed tasks include one or more single worker tasks each of which is to be performed by a worker, and each of the single worker tasks is removed from the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed if the single worker task has been claimed.

15. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the task data includes data representing, for each of a plurality of the tasks, data indicative of a corresponding claiming period, wherein the task remains in the list of unclaimed tasks available to be claimed even if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task until an elapsed time is at least equal to the corresponding claiming period.

16. The workplace task management process of claim 15, wherein the elapsed time is from a creation time of the task or from a time when the task was first claimed.

17. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein if the task has been claimed by a number of workers that is greater than the number of workers required to perform the task, then the process includes selecting workers to perform the task from the workers who have claimed the task based, at least in part, on attributes of the workers who have claimed the task.

. The workplace task management process of claim 17, wherein the attributes of the workers include one or more of: a location of each worker relative to a location of the task; and a role or expertise of each worker; and

an indication of the past performance of each worker.

19. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein the user data includes, for each worker, data representing a role or expertise of the worker, and the task data includes, for each corresponding task, data representing a role or expertise required by the task, wherein a worker is only able to claim a task if the role or expertise of the worker matches or exceeds the role or expertise required by the task.

20. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 12 to 19, wherein

the user data includes closed task data representing, for each of a plurality of the workers, tasks performed by the worker, and the process includes processing the closed task data for each worker to generate worker performance data representing, for each worker, one or more statistical measures of the corresponding performance of the worker.

21. The workplace task management process of claim 20, wherein the one or more statistical measures include, one or more measures of:

(i) a number of tasks completed per shift;

(ii) a task completion time; and

(iii) independent assessments of the performance of the tasks.

22. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 12 to 21, including using one or more wireless sensors of each computing device to generate location data representing a location of the computing device, and processing the location data to determine a proximity of the corresponding worker to a location of a corresponding task and thus determine whether to allow the worker to claim one or more of the tasks available for claiming.

23. The workplace task management process of any one of claims 12 to 22, including:

receiving, at the computing device, the generated user interface data; and processing the generated user interface data to display the interactive user interface on the computing device.

24. One or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system or device, cause the at least one processor to execute the process of any one of claims 12 to 23.