JP2002297850A - Cross check control method in work flow system and work flow system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a work flow system to perform a cross check in which the work result of some worker is confirmed by the other workers when a plurality of workers are in charge of one processing step in the work flow system. SOLUTION: In the case of registering a group of series of nodes (node group) in a work flow server and processing the operation for the node group, a worker conducting the work is recorded in a distribution history. In delivering an item to a node for confirming the work result, the worker registered in the distribution history is excluded from candidates of workers capable of being in charge of the concerned node, and the distribution address is determined from the remaining candidates.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a workflow system using an information processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a work process in which a plurality of workers perform division of labor, and a work result of one person in charge is transferred to another person in charge. The present invention relates to a cross-check control method and a workflow system that allow a user to confirm (cross-check work).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A workflow system is a computer network system developed for efficiently processing office work involving a plurality of people in a time-series manner.
By defining in advance the flow of each matter that occurs in the form of digitized documents in office work as a work flow, the matter processed by the client terminal is automatically sent to the worker in charge downstream on the work flow one after another. To be forwarded.

A workflow system is, for example, LA
N, a plurality of client terminals interconnected by a network, and a workflow server that communicates with each client terminal via the network. Each business flow (business process)
It is defined in advance in a process management table provided in the workflow server. A new matter (digitized document) created at each client terminal or a matter transferred from another user and subjected to additional processing at the client terminal is processed in the process management table under the control of the workflow server. Is automatically sent to the worker of the next step according to the work flow held in the.

[0004] In this specification, each digitized document generated in a business is defined as a "case", and each of a series of processing steps constituting a business flow is defined as a "node". A group of nodes belonging to a related processing step is defined as a “node group”. When the transfer destination of the matter at each node is specified in an individual unit, “user” is specified, and a group consisting of a plurality of users having the same role is specified as a unit, and one of a plurality of members belonging to the group is specified. If you want to transfer to a "roll," say "roll."

[0005] As a prior art related to a case assignment method in a workflow system, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-5516 has been disclosed.
There is No. 2 "Information Processing System". This publication discloses a method in which one node is processed in parallel by a plurality of workers.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a method of processing a case by the workflow system described in the above publication. As shown in the figure, it is assumed that a certain task is composed of five nodes from start 1301 to end 1305.
In this operation, it is assumed that a plurality of persons in charge are specified in the node of the examination 1303. In this case, further examination 1303
Are developed into 13031 and 13032, and a plurality of workers work in parallel.

[0007]

On the other hand, in the actual business, a plurality of workers are in charge of one work, and the work result of the person in charge is assigned to the remaining one, as in a loan approval business in the finance business.
There is a cross-check operation in which up to n workers check each other.

In the technology described in the above publication, the application node 1
The work result of 302 is passed to both examination work 13031 and 13032. In addition, the work result of the examination work 13031 is passed to the approval work 1304 and the examination work 1331
Since the work result of 032 is also passed to the approval work 1304,
The technique disclosed in the above publication cannot be applied to such a cross check operation.

According to the present invention, when a plurality of workers are in charge of one work in a workflow system, it is possible for the remaining workers to confirm the work result of a certain worker (cross check work). With the goal.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a plurality of client units for processing an electronic matter generated for business, and a plurality of client units generated or processed by each of the client units. A cross-check control method in a workflow system including a server unit that controls transfer of a matter to a next worker in accordance with a process flow defined in advance for each work, and a number of persons who can be in charge of the work in advance for each work The step of registering the work of each worker, the step of registering the work and the work of confirming the work result as one set of work, Recording and confirming this during subsequent work steps;
After referring to this history and narrowing down the candidates for the next worker,
Determining the next worker.

The present invention also provides a plurality of client units for processing digitized cases generated for business, and a case generated or processed by each of the client units according to a process flow defined in advance for each business. A cross-check control method in a workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to a next worker, a step of registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of the work for each work, A step of registering the work for confirming the work result as one work group; a step of recording as a history which work has been performed by which worker with respect to the matter; and a step included in the work group. Identifying the worker who performed the work by referring to the history, and determining the worker of the work to check the result of the work And excluding the worker who performed the work from the workers who can take charge of the work as candidates, and determining a worker of the confirmation work from the candidates. .

Further, according to the present invention, there are provided a plurality of client units for processing digitized cases generated for business, and a case generated or processed by each of the client units according to a process flow defined in advance for each business. A workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to a next worker, means for registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of the work for each work, and confirming the work and the work result A means for registering work as one set of works, a means for recording which work was performed by a worker as to which case, and a means for confirming this in a subsequent work stage; Means for determining the next worker after referring to the history and narrowing down candidates for the next worker.

According to the present invention, a plurality of client units for processing digitized cases generated in correspondence with a business, and the cases generated or processed by each of the client units are processed according to a process flow defined in advance for each business. A workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to a next worker, means for registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of the work for each work, and confirming the work and the work result Means for registering work as one set of work, means for recording, as a history, which work has been performed by which worker with respect to the matter, and work which has performed the work included in the set of work Means for identifying a worker by referring to the history, and when determining a worker of the work for checking the result of the work, A candidate except operator who has performed the work, characterized by comprising a means for determining a worker of the confirmation work among the candidates.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a flow of processing performed in a workflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention. When a matter is processed in the “application” node and passed to the “examination” node group, the role definition 101 in which the worker who can be in charge of the “examination” node group is registered,
The “examination” node group is added to the candidate list 102 of the worker who processes the node group. Here, the user A selected from the candidate list 102 processes the “examination” node 103.
At this time, the user A is included in the history 104
Register that has been processed. In deciding an operator who processes the “examination cross check” node 109, the user registered in the history 104 is referred to (105).
The candidates are narrowed down by deleting the corresponding user (user A in this case) from the candidate list 102 (106). The operator of the “examination cross check” node 109 is selected from the candidate list 107 after narrowing down the candidates. In this case, it is assumed that the user B has decided (108). User B
Confirms the result of the work performed by the user A in the “examination” node 103. After the processing of the “examination cross check” node 109, the matter is passed to the “approval” node, and the workflow ends after approval.

FIG. 2 shows a system configuration of the workflow system according to the present embodiment. In this system, the case information, user information, and work process (hereinafter, referred to as “flow”)
And a client unit 201 which is a terminal for referencing and operating the case information. The server unit 211 and the client unit 201 are connected via a network, and can exchange information with each other.

The server unit 211 stores flow definition information and controls a case, a flow definition / control unit 241 for registering users of the system and workers in the flow.
User definition / authentication unit 231 for confirmation, and client control unit 2 for communication / conversation control with the client unit
21. Further, the client unit 201 has a user interface unit 205 for referring to and operating the case information. In some cases, the client unit 201 includes a flow definition unit 202 that operates the flow definition information of the flow definition / control unit 241, a user definition unit 203 that operates the user information of the user definition / authentication unit 231, and a flow definition / control unit. 241 may be provided with a progress management unit 204 for confirming the case information.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed configuration of the server unit 211 shown in FIG. The user definition / authentication unit 231, the notification control unit 331 for notifying an event such as the receipt of a case to the client unit, and the flow definition / control unit 241 via the client control unit 221 for controlling communication and conversation with the client unit 201. To exchange information. The flow definition / control unit 241 includes a flow control unit 301 and a flow definition unit 311. The flow control unit 301 includes a distribution destination management unit 321 that determines a worker who distributes a case, and a case management unit 322 that manages which work process the case is in. The business flow showing the work process in which the matter is processed,
It is registered in the flow definition unit 311 in advance. The worker
An item is operated from the client unit 201 via the network. The processing request from the client unit 201 is
After the user is authenticated by the worker definition / authentication unit 231, it is processed by the matter management unit 322 and sent to the next worker by the distribution destination management unit 321 according to the business flow registered in the flow definition unit 311.

FIG. 4 is a case work history table 401 showing the work state of a case. This table is stored in the server unit 2
11 are stored in the case management unit 322. The flow is composed of the nodes described in the field of the node name 412. An identifier specifying the worker who has processed each node is recorded in the field of the user identifier 413, and the date and time of the work is recorded in the field of the work date and time 411. The work result at each node is displayed in the field of the status 414 as “processing”.
Or “unprocessed”. If a field of the node group name 415 describing the node group name to which the node name 412 belongs is prepared like this table, the node group name 415 and the user identifier can be referred to only by referring to the case work history table 401 only. From 413, it is possible to obtain a list of workers who have performed the processing of the corresponding node group.

FIG. 5 shows a user definition table 501 in which worker information is registered. This table is held in the user definition / authentication unit 231 of the server unit 211. For each worker, a user name 512 in the real world viewed from the client unit 201 and a user identifier 5 which is an identification number for each worker and which is assigned for convenience in processing inside the system.
11 is associated.

FIG. 6 shows a role definition table 601 in which information of workers who can perform the same processing on nodes is registered. This table is held in the user definition / authentication unit 231 of the server unit 211. A role name 611 assigned to the work is associated with a user identifier 612 of a worker who is allowed to work.

FIG. 7 shows a node group definition table 701 in which a user who is in charge of the same work among a plurality of nodes registers a set of nodes to be cross-checked.
It is. This table is stored in the flow definition unit 311 of the server unit 211. The node group name to which each node shown in the node name 711 field belongs is registered in the node group name 712 field. If the target node does not belong to any node group, “NON” is registered in the field of the node group name 712. Nodes having the same node group name are regarded as belonging to the same node group.

FIG. 8 is a distribution destination candidate table 801 showing a candidate list of workers who will process the matter next. This table is created when a case is passed to the next node, or a record is added, and is stored in the distribution destination management unit 321 of the server unit 211. A user identifier 811 of a candidate worker is associated with a distribution flag 812 indicating whether or not the worker has already worked on another case.
If another case has already been distributed to the worker, the field of the distribution flag 812 is set to “ON”. If the case has not been distributed, the field is set to “OF”.
F ".

FIG. 9 is a table 901 for defining roles that can take charge of each node group. This table is stored in the flow definition unit 311 of the server unit 211. Roles that can be assigned to each node group described in the field of the node group name 911 are registered in the field of the role name 912.

The processing of the flow control unit 301 of the server unit 211 for implementing the cross check will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the overall processing procedure of this embodiment. The matter is passed to the worker according to a pre-registered business flow and is processed. The flow definition / control unit 241 of the server unit 211 extracts from the flow definition unit 311 a node that will process the matter next (step 1001). It is determined whether or not the node exists by referring to the node name 412 and the status 414 of the case work history table 401 (step 1002). If the fields of the status 414 are all “processing” and there is no next node, the processing is terminated assuming that the flow has been completed.

If the next node exists, it is checked whether the node belongs to the node group by referring to the field of the node group name 415 of the case work history table 401 (step 1003). If the next node does not belong to the node group, the distribution destination is determined from the candidates for which the matter whose flag is “OFF” is not distributed with reference to the distribution flag 812 of the distribution destination candidate table 801 ( Step 1004). Step 1
In 003, if the next node belongs to the node group, a process of determining a node group, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 11, is performed (step 1011). At that time, step 1
The name of the node group to which the node belongs acquired in step 003 is passed. When the distribution destination is determined in step 1004, the matter is distributed to the worker of the distribution destination (step 1).
005).

FIGS. 11 and 12 are flowcharts showing a processing procedure for determining a node group and narrowing down candidates for distribution destinations. First, the node group name acquired in step 1003 of FIG. 10 is stored in the variable area for storing the node group name (step 1101). With reference to the role definition table 901 of the node group, the role corresponding to the node group name is read from the field of the role name 912 (step 1102), and the number of read roles is set in the counter (step 110).
3).

Next, referring to the role definition table 601, a user identifier corresponding to the role name read in step 1102 is added to the field of the user identifier 811 of the distribution destination candidate table 801 (step 110).
4). At this time, "OF" is displayed in the field of the distribution flag.
F ". The above processing is repeated until the counter becomes 0 (steps 1105 and 1106), and a distribution destination candidate table 801 is created from all the roles assigned to the corresponding node group.

Next, referring to the case work history table 401, a record in which the field of the status 414 is "process" is searched (step 1111). If there is no corresponding record, the process skips to step 1121. If the record exists, one record is read from the record searched in step 1111 (step 1112), and the node group name 415 of the read record is set in step 11
It is determined whether or not 01 is equal to the node group name stored in the variable area (step 1113). If it is not equal to the node group name stored in the variable area, step 1
Return to 111. If they are equal, the matter has already been distributed to the worker described in the read record. Therefore, the user identifier 413 of the record is read, and the corresponding user is referred by referring to the user identifier 811 field of the distribution destination candidate table 801. The field of the distribution flag 812 corresponding to the identifier is set to “ON” (Step 1)
114). The above-described processing is performed by the case work history table 401.
Is repeated until there is no record in which the field of the status 414 is "process" (step 1115).

Next, it is confirmed that a record exists in the distribution destination candidate table 801 (step 1121).
If a record exists, the distribution destination candidate table 801
The record is read (step 1122). If the field of the distribution flag 812 of the read record is "O"
It is determined whether "N" or "OFF" (step 1123).
If “ON”, delete the record (step 1
124), the next record in the distribution destination candidate table 801 is read (step 1125). The processing of steps 1123 and 1124 described above is repeated for the remaining records.

In the distribution destination candidate table 801 at the stage when the processing in FIGS. 11 and 12 is completed, there remains the worker candidates of the node group in which the field of the distribution flag 812 is “OFF”. Since the remaining workers are candidates for the distribution destination of the matter, the flow returns to the flowchart of FIG. 10 and the steps after step 1004 are processed to determine the distribution destination, so that the cross check can be performed.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When a group of nodes (node group) is registered in the workflow server, and the work of the node group is processed, the worker who performed the work is recorded in the distribution history, and the node that confirms the work result is sent to the node that confirms the work result. When performing the delivery, the worker registered in the distribution history is excluded from the candidates of the workers who can be in charge of the node, and the distribution destination is determined from the remaining candidates. Workers can confirm (cross-check) each other's work results with each other.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a flow of processing performed in a workflow system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a workflow system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a server unit;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a case work history table that records the progress of a case process;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a user definition table for registering information on workers.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a role definition table for registering workers who can perform the same work.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a node group definition table that defines which node a node group is configured from;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a list of candidates for workers to be the next distribution destination of a matter;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table that defines roles that can work in a node group;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the overall processing flow of the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart (part 1) showing a processing flow for determining a node group and narrowing down workers who are distribution destination candidates.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart (part 2) illustrating a processing flow for determining a node group and narrowing down distribution destination candidate workers;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a processing method by a conventional workflow system.

[Explanation of symbols]

201 client part, 202 flow definition part, 20
3 User definition unit, 204 Progress management unit, 205 User interface unit, 211 Server unit, 221 Client control unit, 231 User definition / authentication unit, 24
1 ... Flow definition / control unit, 301 ... Flow control unit, 31
1. Flow definition unit 321, distribution destination management unit, 322 case management unit, 331 notification control unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Noriyuki Yamaguchi 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Within the Hitachi, Ltd.Software Division (72) Inventor Osamu Yamanaka 5030 Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd.Software Division (72) Inventor Takaaki Kondo 5030 Totsukacho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of client units for processing an electronic matter generated in correspondence with a business, and a next charge in accordance with a process flow defined in advance for each business by generating or processing the matter generated by each of the client units. A cross-check control method in a workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to an operator, comprising the steps of: registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of the work for each work; A step of registering the work to be confirmed as one set of work, a step of recording which work and which worker performed the work for the matter as a history, and a step of confirming this in a subsequent work stage. , After referring to this history and narrowing down the candidates for the next worker,
A step of determining a next worker. 2. A plurality of client units for processing an electronic matter generated in correspondence with the business, and a next charge according to a process flow defined in advance for each business by generating or processing the matter generated by each of the client units. A cross-check control method in a workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to an operator, comprising the steps of: registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of the work for each work; Registering the work to be confirmed as one set of work; recording as a history which work was performed by which worker with respect to the matter; and performing the work included in the work set Identifying the worker who performed the work by referring to the history, and determining the worker of the work to check the result of the work Cross-checking in a workflow system, comprising the steps of: excluding a worker who has performed the work from among the workers who can take charge of the work as candidates, and determining a worker of the confirmation work from the candidates. Control method. 3. A plurality of client units for processing an electronic matter generated in correspondence with the business, and a next charge in accordance with a process flow defined in advance for each business by generating or processing the matter generated by each of the client units. A workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to workers, comprising: means for registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of each work; and work for confirming the work and the work result. A means for registering as a group of two tasks, a means for recording which work was performed by a worker in a project as a history, and a means for confirming this in subsequent work stages, and referencing this history After narrowing down the candidates for the next worker,
Means for determining a next worker. 4. A plurality of client units for processing an electronic matter generated for business, and a next charge in accordance with a process flow defined in advance for each business by generating or processing the matter generated by each of the client units. A workflow system having a server unit for controlling transfer to workers, comprising: means for registering in advance a number of workers who can take charge of each work; and work for confirming the work and the work result. Means for registering as a set of work, means for recording which work has been performed by a worker as to the matter as a history, and the worker who has performed the work included in the set of work Means for specifying by referring to a history, and when deciding who to check the result of the work, perform the work from a worker who can be in charge of the work. A candidate except operator workflow system characterized by comprising a means for determining a worker of the confirmation work among the candidates.