JP2007108827A - Workflow system, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a structure for providing an electronic information sharing place suitable for consulting to carry out an activity in a workflow process. <P>SOLUTION: A public openable range 214 of each electronic bulletin board is registered also as an information sharing place in a bulletin board DB 200. A meta-information releasable range 117 showing a releasable range for a consultation place to individual processes or activities is registered in a workflow DB 110. A workflow management system 400 obtains a suitable public open level for a consultation place to a request by comparing a consultation request range requested from a user, with the meta-information releasable range 117, and recommends to the user a bulletin board with the public openable range 214 corresponding to the public open level. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for workflow management.

  Conventionally, various tools and systems for workflow management based on information technology have been provided by various vendors. Along with the spread, a standardization organization called Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) has been organized. According to the definition of WfMC, “workflow” is “automation of the whole business process or a part thereof, whereby documents, information, and tasks are transferred from the person in charge to the person in charge according to the procedure rules”. WfMC is a “workflow management system” that defines, generates, and operates workflows that are executed by software that runs on one or more workflow engines. Interprets and interacts with the person in charge of the workflow and launches the application as needed. " In addition, the work of individual workers constituting the workflow process is called “activity” (sometimes called “task”). That is, the workflow process is defined as a series of activities.

  Business processes are achieved by traversing departments, teams, individuals, computer system services, etc. that perform various functions. Therefore, it is a common practice to assign activities that constitute a business process to departments or teams. Assigned teams are not limited to those officially specified in the organizational structure of the company, etc., but are common problems and tasks in the task force that is organized flexibly according to the work, the electronic bulletin board in the company, etc. A gathering of people discussing about is also included.

  From the outside, it is sufficient that the activity is assigned to a unit that has the functionality to perform it. If it is not mechanized, it is usually a person or group of people with some role. , Which is organized as a team.

  On the other hand, if you look at each team, the activity must be done manually by someone else, so who is involved in the activity individually and how it is performed Is always a problem.

  There is such a gap between the outside and inside of every team. And it is one of the functions of management to adjust it. And when delegation of management authority to each team is properly promoted, management tries to optimize as much as possible while making judgments on individual specific situations, contents, aptitude, etc., not mechanically Then, it is necessary to consult and exchange opinions between team members. In many cases, an electronic communication place such as an electronic bulletin board or a mailing list is used as a place for such consultation and exchange of opinions.

  Such “team-based communication venues” improve the convenience of users, but on the other hand, their proper design is difficult. In particular, the ability and experience of system analysis are indispensable in order to be able to properly design what is needed in advance. If every case is considered through thorough analysis, the combination of the members participating in the communication becomes a large number of patterns, and the number of venues increases accordingly. This does not solve the problem.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a conventional technique for distributing activities assigned to a team to individuals. In this conventional technique, the worker can take over the matter assigned to the own department or the higher department, and the person in charge of the department assigns the matter assigned to the own department or the upper department to the lower department or subordinate. Provides a mechanism.

  However, the method of Patent Document 1 is such that the person in charge of the department determines the assignment to the subordinate departments and subordinates, and does not provide a place for appropriate communication between the team and related parties in the vicinity. Absent.

JP-A-10-326306

  The present invention provides a mechanism for providing an electronic information sharing field suitable for performing communication for performing an activity in a workflow process.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer system to function as a workflow system that cooperates with an information sharing system having a plurality of information sharing fields with different information disclosure ranges, and for communication regarding activities in the workflow process. The requested disclosure level is received from the user, the recommended disclosure level of the place for communication of the activity is obtained based on the combination of the requested communication requirement range and the information disclosure possible range of the activity, and the obtained recommended disclosure level An information sharing field having an information disclosure range corresponding to the above is obtained as a recommended field, and a program for causing the computer system to notify the user of the determined recommended field is provided.

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

  First, the overall configuration of the workflow support system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  The workflow support system includes a workflow DB (database) 100, a bulletin board DB 200, a user DB 300, a workflow management system 400, and a bulletin board system 500. Each of these components is connected to each other via a network such as the Internet or a LAN (Local Area Network) in a company, or an individual communication cable.

  This workflow support system is used for business support of an organization such as a company or a company group, and users belonging to the organization are registered as users in the user DB 300. In the user information 302 of each user registered in the user DB 300, for example, the ID of the user (identification information such as employee number), name, title, department, etc. are registered. Further, authentication information (password or the like) of each user used for user authentication in the workflow management system 400 or the bulletin board system 500 is registered as one of user information, and the user DB 300 is appropriately accessed from these systems for authentication. You can also do it. In addition, organization information 304 is also registered in the user DB 300. The organization information includes information on the hierarchical structure of departments of organizations such as companies. Organization information is not only information that has been formally determined within the organization, such as a departmental hierarchy, but also information on a loose group of people who share information on electronic bulletin boards such as electronic bulletin boards within the organization. Is also included. In this way, a gathering of people may be formed starting from an information sharing field such as a bulletin board, or an existing department may provide a dedicated information sharing field for communication within the department. Hereinafter, a set of participants for such one information sharing field is referred to as a “team”. The team information includes information on the information sharing area used by the team and a list of members constituting the team. The user DB 300 is appropriately referred to from the workflow management system 400 and the bulletin board system 500.

  It is also possible to assign a role to each participant in each bulletin board. In that case, the information on the team in the organization information also includes information on the role of each participant in the team. This role is separate from the title assigned to the user in the organization. Participants' role on the bulletin board includes, for example, a leader who manages discussion and communication on the bulletin board, a member who is a general participant who views and speaks on the bulletin board, and an observer who is only allowed to view the bulletin board . Of course, this is only an example, and it is possible to set a different role, or to adopt a role division from another viewpoint.

  The bulletin board system 500, which is an element of the workflow support system, has a user registration type configuration. That is, for each electronic bulletin board managed by bulletin board system 500 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “bulletin board”), a list of user IDs of participants of the bulletin board is managed. Only users registered in the user DB 300 can participate in each bulletin board.

  The bulletin board system 500 manages each user's access to each bulletin board based on user authentication, and processes browsing requests and message (speech) registration requests from users who are determined to have authority as a result of the authentication. . The bulletin board system 500 also has a function of opening a bulletin board in response to a request from a user and registering participants on the bulletin board.

  Information about each bulletin board managed by the bulletin board system 500 is registered in the bulletin board DB 200. In the bulletin board DB 200, bulletin board information 210 is registered for each bulletin board. The bulletin board information 210 includes information on the bulletin board name 211 of the bulletin board. The bulletin board is given a bulletin board ID (identification information) that is unique within the bulletin board system and is also included in the bulletin board information 210 (not shown).

  The bulletin board information 210 includes a list of messages 212 registered in the bulletin board. The list of messages forms the main body of the electronic bulletin board, and a conventional bulletin board data format that holds thread information (information indicating a message destination message) or the like may be used.

  The message 212 is a normal message written by the user via the bulletin board system 500. In addition, in the present embodiment, the activity message 213 can be registered in the bulletin board information 210. That is, in the present embodiment, a mechanism is adopted in which a bulletin board registered in the bulletin board DB 200 is recommended as a place for communication such as consultation for exchanging activities of a workflow process (hereinafter simply referred to as “process”) and exchange of opinions. By this mechanism, a message written to the bulletin board DB 200 via the workflow management system 400 is managed as an activity message 213 (details will be described later).

  The disclosure range information 214 is information that defines the range of users who disclose the bulletin board. The bulletin board registered in the bulletin board DB 200 includes a “public bulletin board” opened to the entire organization such as the company in addition to the above-mentioned “team” bulletin board, and processes involved in the workflow management system 400. There is a publicly available “process bulletin board”. All users belonging to the organization can view and post on the public bulletin board. The process bulletin board is automatically generated and registered in the bulletin board DB 200, for example, when a new process is registered in the workflow management system 400. The process participant who is a participant in the process bulletin board is, for example, an individual designated as a person in charge of each activity constituting the process, or a team participant designated as a person in charge. The disclosure range information 214 includes type information indicating whether the bulletin board is “team bulletin board”, “process bulletin board”, or “public bulletin board”. If the bulletin board is a “process bulletin board”, the disclosure range information 214 includes a process ID to indicate which process the bulletin board is. By using this process ID, a list of process participants can be acquired from the workflow DB 100. In the case of “team bulletin board”, the ID of the bulletin board is equivalent to the ID of the team, and the team participant information can be acquired from the user DB 300 using this ID.

  The bulletin board system 500 provides the requested electronic bulletin board in the form of, for example, a WWW (World Wide Web) web page to a user terminal such as a personal computer in response to an access request from the user.

  In this manner, the bulletin board system 500 provides an electronic bulletin board as a place for information sharing and discussion to users in the organization. As long as the name of the bulletin board is used to indicate the content of the activity, each user in the organization can view the list of names of the bulletin boards that have been established, and what kind of activity is performed accordingly. You can get an overview of what communities are there. In addition to the name, if the explanation document of the bulletin board for people outside the community is registered in association with the bulletin board and is made public, it becomes easier to grasp the activity contents of each bulletin board. This explanatory document can be provided, for example, in the form of a web page.

  From another point of view, the bulletin board system 500 can be regarded as a mechanism in which groupware provides dedicated electronic bulletin boards for individual groups. In this case, the bulletin board system 500 is one service constituting groupware. Accordingly, when the electronic bulletin board system 500 is provided as a part of such groupware, not only the bulletin board service but also the groupware such as schedule management and document sharing are provided to the bulletin board participants. It is also possible to provide various services.

  The workflow DB 100 is a database that manages workflow process information, and includes process information 110 for each workflow process. The process information 110 is information about an instance of a process, that is, an individual specific process created according to the process definition. That is, for example, when one process such as “article purchase procedure” is defined, an instance is generated when the “article purchase procedure” process is activated to purchase a specific article.

  Process information 110 is such individual instance information. The process information 110 includes a process type ID 111. The process type ID 111 is identification information of a process definition (in other words, a process type) that is a source of the process (instance). Each process that is an instance is assigned a unique process ID and managed as one item of process information 110 (not shown).

  The access right information 112 shown in the process information 110 is information indicating the access right of the user in the organization with respect to the definition and progress of the process, or the target data 114 processed by the process and each activity in the process. is there. The target data 114 is data to be directly processed in a process or activity, such as an electronic form of an article purchase application form in the case of an “article purchase procedure” process. On the other hand, the communication on the bulletin board for consultation of the person in charge of the activity and how to proceed is not the direct processing target of the process or activity, but becomes “meta” level information from the direct processing target. Some of the data to be processed may be disclosed to all members of the organization, while others may be disclosed only to process participants. Thus, the access right information indicates to what level the target data 114 may be disclosed in the organization.

  Further, the process information 110 includes information on activities 113 that constitute the process. The activity information includes information indicating an application for processing the activity, a description of the activity processing content, an activity start condition, an end condition, and the like. In addition, information on the flow formed by the activity is also included. Further, the activity 113 is associated with target data 114 to be processed by the activity and allocation destination information 115 indicating the person in charge of the activity. A set of all activity allocation destinations included in the process is the entire process participant, and this is managed as process participant information 116.

  Further, the process information 110 includes information on the meta information disclosure possible range 117. This information is information within a range for disclosing meta-level communication (for example, consultation about the person in charge of the activity and how to proceed) for the activity in the process. The access right information 112 described above is also used in a conventional workflow system, whereas the meta information disclosure possible range 117 is unique to the present embodiment.

  The meta information disclosure possible range 117 includes three levels of “public”, “process participant”, and “activity participant + activity participant before and after”. “Public” means that the system of the present embodiment can disclose meta-level communication to all users in an organization that provides services. “Process Participant” can be disclosed to the person involved in the process, and “Activity Participant + Activity Participant Before and After” is the person involved in the activity (that is, the team designated as the person in charge of the activity) It can be disclosed to the participants in the activity immediately before and after. One of these three levels is set in the meta information disclosure possible range 117.

  The meta information disclosure possible range 117 can be specified for each activity in the process. It is also possible to set a default value in the process and adopt the default value when there is no designation in the activity unit.

  The meta information disclosure possible range 117 may be set by, for example, the person who created the process definition or the person who started the process instance.

  Further, since the access right information 112 indicating the disclosure range of the process target data 114 and the meta information disclosure possible range 117 are information on the same process, the meta information disclosure possible range 117 can be automatically generated from the access right information 112. is there. Since the access right information 112 is generally used in an existing workflow system, if the meta information disclosure possible range 117 can be generated from the access right information 112, the operation burden on the user can be reduced. In such automatic generation, the access right information 112 adopts an access right level classification similar to the three-level classification of “public”, “process participant”, and “activity participant” of the meta information disclosure possible range 117. If the correspondence between the access right level of the access right information 112 and the level of the meta information disclosure possible range 117 is created, the meta information disclosure possible range 117 can be easily obtained according to the correspondence. . If there is not such a simple correspondence, a mapping rule is created that indicates to which level of the meta information disclosure possible range 117 each of all the access right patterns that the access right information 112 can take. You just have to.

For example, assume that the workflow management system 400 has the following access right management function.
-For each process definition, a general user (a user who is not a system administrator) can be given authority to refer to the process definition information.
-For each process definition, a general user can be given authority to refer to the progress status when the process is executed.

  In such a system, for example, it is assumed that the definition of the “stationery purchase” process is set so that general users can refer to it. In this case, since what kind of procedure is performed in this process is completely disclosed, it can be handled as corresponding to “publication” in the classification of the meta information disclosure possible range 117. Therefore, the access right that “process definition can be disclosed to general users” can be mapped to “publish” in the meta information disclosure possible range 117.

  Further, it is assumed that the “failure handling” process cannot be referred to by the general user for the definition, and the general user can refer to the progress status. In this case, for each in-progress process, it can be considered that the procedure is disclosed to some extent to those who work in the process. Therefore, such an access right can be mapped to a “process participant” in the classification of the meta information disclosure possible range 117.

  In addition, it is assumed that the definition and progress information of the “Personnel Information Notification” process is set to be inaccessible to general users. In this case, even those who are involved in the process are restricted so that they cannot know who is more than the person who directly exchanges the entire procedure and work data. Therefore, such an access right can be mapped to a type of “activity participant + previous activity participant”.

  Thus, if mapping information based on the above analysis is created and installed in the workflow management system 400 for all the patterns of the access right information 112 in the workflow management system 400, a person can disclose meta information. This can be automatically generated from the access right information 112 without setting 117 individually.

  Although each item of the process information 110 has been described above, some of these items have specific values described in the process definition and others do not. For items that do not have a specific value in the definition, the values are set as necessary when the process instance is activated or executed. For example, it is common that the person in charge of the activity in the actual process specifies the person in charge of the next activity (assignment destination information 115).

  On the other hand, the workflow management system 400 of this embodiment provides a user with a process definition function, a function for starting a defined process and executing an instance thereof, an operation function for receiving a user operation on the process, and a work list providing function. , Etc. are provided. The operation function is used, for example, for starting a process or assigning or changing a person in charge for an activity in a process being executed. The work list providing function creates and provides to each user a work list that is a list of activities that the user (or the team to which the user belongs) should currently perform. The work list is also called a “To-Do” list. These definition function, execution function, operation function, and work list providing function may be the same as those provided in the conventional workflow system.

  The workflow management system 400 can designate a bulletin board of “team” registered in the bulletin board DB 200 as well as an individual in charge of an activity as well as an individual or a title. In other words, the workflow management system 400 provides, for example, a list of bulletin board names of teams as well as a list of personal names and job titles as options of the person in charge on the user interface screen for specifying the person in charge of the activity. Let the user specify the person in charge from among them.

  Designating a team as a person in charge has the following advantages. In other words, when a team is designated as a person in charge, it is necessary to consult who is responsible for the activity among the people in that team, but in this embodiment, the team has a bulletin board corresponding to it. The bulletin board can be used as a place to discuss work sharing decisions.

  As described above, the point of consulting the individual in charge of the activity assigned to the team has been described. However, there are other cases where a meta level consultation for the activity is necessary for the activity execution. For example, if you don't know why an activity has been assigned to your team, or if you don't know how to proceed with the assigned activity, or want to explain the processing result of your activity for the next activity, Etc. can be illustrated. In such a case, not only within the team in charge of the activity, but also the participant of the previous activity (referred to as “previous activity”), the participant of the next activity (referred to as “post-activity”), or the process participant. Necessary to consult with the whole and exchange opinions. In consideration of such a case, the workflow management system 400 according to the present embodiment has a function of recommending a bulletin board suitable for such meta-level communication.

  In order to recommend a bulletin board, the workflow management system 400 has a function of accepting a designation of a consultation request range from a user. The consultation request range is the range of the person who wants to consult about the activity. In the present embodiment, the consultation request range is classified into “inside team”, “participant of team and previous activity”, “participant of team and post-activity”, and “all participants of team and process”. . The user selects one of these four classifications according to his / her wish.

  The workflow management system 400 determines a recommended bulletin board based on the balance between the consultation request range designated by the user and the meta information disclosure possible range 117 of the activity. An example of the determination rule used for this determination is shown in FIG.

  In the determination rule table of FIG. 2, the horizontal axis represents the consultation request range classification, and the vertical axis represents the meta information disclosure possible range 117 classification. A list of recommended bulletin board disclosure ranges (publication levels) for combinations of both categories is shown in the cells where the vertical axis classification and horizontal axis classification intersect. In this list, “public” indicates “public bulletin board” for the entire organization, “p” indicates “process bulletin board”, and “chi” indicates “team bulletin board”. In addition, when there is no appropriate disclosure range in these existing bulletin boards, the workflow management system 400 has a function of newly creating individual bulletin boards in response to a consultation request. “Individual” in the list means such an individual bulletin board. In the list in each cell, the priority (recommended degree) is higher on the left side. The scope of disclosure in parentheses means that it is not prohibited but not recommended. A public range that is not included in the list in the cell is prohibited.

  The rules of FIG. 2 will be described. First, a case where the meta information disclosure possible range 117 is “public” will be described. In this case, the public bulletin board is most recommended regardless of the consultation request range designated by the user. This is based on a policy that, in order to share information throughout the organization, communication that may be disclosed is actively disclosed to the entire organization. For the next level, a bulletin board with a public level corresponding to the scope of the consultation request is recommended. That is, if the consultation request range is “within the team”, the team bulletin board is recommended as the second place, and the consultation request range is “team and pre-activity participant”, “team and post-activity participant” or “team and process” If it is "all involved", the process bulletin board is recommended as the second place. Since the process bulletin board can be used by the participants in the activities within and behind the team, the process bulletin board is used in accordance with the policy of using the existing bulletin board as much as possible. In addition, if the policy is to avoid an unnecessarily large number of bulletin boards, it is not desirable to use individual bulletin boards for consultation as much as possible. However, for example, users who specify the acquisition request range such as “Team and Pre-Activity Participant” or “Team and Post-Activity Participant” want to avoid communication on a public bulletin board such as a public bulletin board or a process bulletin board. In some cases. In order to cope with such a case, the rule of FIG. 2 provides an option of an individual bulletin board at a level of “not recommended but not prohibited”.

  Next, a case where the meta-information disclosure possible range 117 is “whole process participants” will be described. In this case, a public bulletin board according to the consultation request range is recommended. That is, if the consultation request range is “within the team”, the team bulletin board is recommended as the first place, and the consultation request range is “team and pre-activity participant”, “team and post-activity participant” or “team and process” If it is "all participants", the process bulletin board is recommended as the first place. In addition, when the consultation request range is “inside the team”, “participant of the team and the previous activity”, and “participant of the team and the post activity”, although not recommended, an option of an individual bulletin board is provided to the user.

  Next, a case where the meta information disclosure possible range 117 is “activity participant and preceding and following activity participants” will be described. In this case, if the acquisition request range is within “team”, the team bulletin board is recommended as the first place. In the case of other acquisition request ranges, according to the disclosure possible range 117, neither the public bulletin board nor the process bulletin board can be used, and the team bulletin board cannot be consulted with people outside the team. Is not available. In this case, an individual bulletin board is recommended.

  The determination rule as described above is only an example. For example, the system administrator creates a list of recommended disclosure levels for each combination of the acquisition request range and the meta information disclosure possible range according to the information disclosure and information protection policies in each organization, and registers them in the workflow management system 400. Just keep it.

  This completes the description of the recommended bulletin board decision rules. Next, the flow of the recommendation process at the consultation site in the system of the present embodiment will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the workflow management system 400 displays a “consultation” button 610 for each activity item in a work list (To-Do list) 600 provided to each user. When the user presses the consultation button, an instruction including identification information of the target activity is sent from the user's terminal to the workflow management system 400, and the workflow management system 400 starts the consultation recommendation process accordingly. To do.

  Note that the consultation button may be displayed not only on the work list, but also on each activity screen (for example, a screen displaying the target data 114 of the activity or a screen explaining the work contents of the activity).

  FIG. 4 shows a procedure of a recommendation process for a consultation place executed by the workflow management system 400. In this procedure, in response to pressing of the consultation button, first, the workflow management system 400 acquires the meta information disclosure possible range of the activity that is the target of the consultation button from the workflow DB 100 (S2). In parallel with the process of step S2, the workflow management system 400 provides a consultation request range designation screen to the user terminal of the consultation request source (S3), and accepts designation of the consultation request range from the user (S4).

  A display example of the consultation request range designation screen 700 is shown in FIG. As illustrated, the screen 700 includes four options 702 to 708 of “inside team”, “participant of team and previous activity”, “participant of team and post-activity”, and “all participants of team and process”. Is shown. When the user selects a desired item from among the options 702 to 708 by a click operation or the like, information on the selected option is transmitted from the user terminal to the workflow management system 400.

  The workflow management system 400 that has obtained the information on the consultation request range and the meta information disclosure possible range in this way next searches the determination rule table illustrated in FIG. The list is determined (S5). For example, if the consultation request range is “Team and previous activity participants” and the meta information disclosure possible range is “All process participants”, it is recommended that the process bulletin board be the first recommended release level and that individual bulletin boards be created. It is determined that the level is not prohibited but not prohibited. Then, the bulletin board DB 200 is searched from the bulletin board DB 200 for each ranking in the list (S6). In this search, a corresponding bulletin board is searched based on the disclosure range information 214 of each bulletin board registered in the bulletin board DB 200. If the recommended public level is “public bulletin board”, a bulletin board whose public range information 214 is “public bulletin board” is found. When the recommended publication level is “process bulletin board”, the process to which the activity belongs is obtained from the workflow DB 100, and a bulletin board whose publication range information 214 is “process bulletin board” for the process is found. If the recommended public level is “team bulletin board”, the team responsible for the activity is obtained from the assignment destination information 115 of the activity in the workflow DB 100, and the public range information 214 is the bulletin board for the team. Search for. The above processing is performed for each rank in the list of recommended release levels, and the bulletin board of each rank is specified. Since the individual bulletin board is newly created, no search is necessary.

  When the bulletin boards having the respective ranks can be identified in this way, the workflow management system 400 creates a recommended bulletin board list in which the bulletin boards are arranged in order, and provides them to the user terminal (S7). An example of the recommended bulletin board list display screen 800 is shown in FIG. In this example, a group of links 810 to recommended bulletin boards and a group of links 820 to bulletin boards not recommended but permitted to be used are displayed. Among these, a link for instructing creation of an individual bulletin board indicates a new bulletin board creation function provided by the workflow management system 400. The other links include information for specifying an existing bulletin board in the bulletin board DB 200. Bulletin boards that are prohibited from use are not shown in the list.

  Regardless of which link is selected, the selection result is sent to the workflow management system 400 (S8).

  When creation of an individual bulletin board is selected, the workflow management system 400 creates a new bulletin board in the bulletin board DB 200 (S9). At this time, the workflow management system 400 determines a participant to be registered in the new bulletin board according to the consultation request range and registers it in the new bulletin board. For example, if the consultation request range is “team and previous activity participant”, the team member in charge of the activity and the participant of the previous activity are registered as participants in the new bulletin board.

  Then, regardless of whether an individual bulletin board is newly created or an existing bulletin board is selected in this way, the workflow management system 400 creates a message to start a meta-level consultation / communication about an activity. Is registered with the bulletin board created or selected (S10). This message preferably incorporates a link to the activity's subject data 114 and / or a description of the activity, so that each participant can identify the activity to be consulted. It is also preferable to provide a user interface screen for inputting a comment to be added to this message to the user who has pressed the consultation button, and add the comment input thereto to the message and register it on the bulletin board. is there.

  When a message is registered on the bulletin board in this way, the bulletin board system 500 transmits a notification notifying that the message has been registered to the participants of the bulletin board, for example, by e-mail or the like. Can inform other participants that consultation is required. This notification may include a link to the bulletin board. Further, the contents of the registered message may be incorporated in the notification.

  In the embodiment described above, there may be a case where a plurality of persons in a team designated as a person in charge of an activity separately request a consultation. In such a case, if a bulletin board is individually recommended, there is a possibility that both may try to consult using different bulletin boards and pass each other. In order to prevent this, it is also preferable to perform the following automatic filter processing in the workflow management system 400.

  In other words, when the workflow management system 400 registers a consultation start message for a recommended bulletin board in response to a consultation request related to an activity from the user, the workflow board ID, the type ID of the process to which the activity belongs, the consultation Record the triples with the requirements. Then, when a consultation request is received from another user after that, before entering the processing of FIG. 4, it is checked whether or not a triple that matches the process type ID and the consultation request range is recorded. Then, a notice indicating the link to the bulletin board included in the triplet is sent to the user who requested the consultation to encourage the use of the bulletin board. In this case, the process of FIG. 4 is not performed.

  Here, the reason why the process type ID is used is that in the processes generated from the same process definition, it is easy to request consultation of the same kind of question or the same kind of matter. That is, by recommending to the requesting user a bulletin board that holds communication for the same kind of matter, the user may be able to acquire information about what he / she wants to know from the bulletin board.

  Instead of the process type ID, an ID indicating a process instance may be used as a triplet item. Further, identification information that identifies the activity may be used.

  According to the embodiment described above, it is possible to provide a bulletin board having an appropriate public level according to a meta level consultation request from a user for an activity and a disclosure range of meta level information of each activity as a place for consultation. Therefore, accidents such as information leakage can be prevented by incorrect use, and information can be widely shared within a range where there is no problem if a recommended bulletin board is used. In addition, it is possible to support and record only the necessary session support for a session that is confidential but requires a communication that includes specific individuals across the team.

  In the above embodiment, the case where an electronic bulletin board is used as an information sharing place is exemplified. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and information sharing is performed on a mailing list or a portal web page prepared for each level of the entire organization, process, and team. The above system can also be applied when used as a place.

  The workflow management system 400 and the bulletin board management system 500 described above are realized by causing a general-purpose computer system to execute a program describing the functions and operations of the systems 400 and 500 described above. The program is typically provided in a state of being recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, a magnetic disk such as a flexible disk, or a hard disk drive.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the system of embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the determination rule of the information sharing field recommended for meta level communication. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the work list containing the consultation button. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the recommendation process of the place of communication. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of a consultation request | requirement range designation | designated screen. It is a figure which shows the example of the display screen of a recommendation bulletin board list.

Explanation of symbols

  100 Workflow DB, 110 Process information, 111 Process type ID, 112 Access right information, 113 Activity, 114 Target data, 115 Allocation information, 116 Process participant information, 117 Meta information disclosure possible range, 200 Bulletin board DB, 210 Bulletin board information , 211 bulletin board name, 212 message, 213 activity message, 214 disclosure range information, 300 user DB, 302 user information, 304 organization information, 400 workflow management system, 500 bulletin board system.

Claims (9)

A program for causing a computer system to function as a workflow system that cooperates with an information sharing system having a plurality of information sharing areas with different information disclosure ranges,
Accepting from the user the specification of the communication request range related to activities in the workflow process,
Based on the combination of the specified communication requirement range and the information disclosure possible range of the activity, the recommended disclosure level of the place for communication of the activity is determined,
An information sharing area having an information disclosure range corresponding to the recommended disclosure level that was found is determined as a recommended area
Notifying the user of the recommended location requested
A program for causing the computer system to execute the above. The program according to claim 1,
In the step of obtaining the recommended release level,
Using the table showing the disclosure level corresponding to the combination of the communication request range and the activity information disclosure possible range, the recommended disclosure level is obtained.
A program characterized by that. The program according to claim 1,
In the step of accepting from the user the specification of the communication request range for activities in the workflow process,
A first request range composed of participants of the activity, a second request range composed of participants of the activity and the previous activity, a third request range composed of participants of the activity and the participants of the subsequent activity And, as an option, at least one of the fourth request ranges consisting of persons involved in the process to which the activity belongs, and accepting selection of the communication request range from the options,
A program characterized by that. The program according to claim 1,
The information disclosure possible range of the activity includes a first disclosure range that is disclosed to the entire organization that provides the service by the information sharing system, a second disclosure range that is disclosed to the participants of the workflow process to which the activity belongs, One of the third disclosure ranges that are open to the participants of the activity before and after the activity,
A program characterized by that. The program according to claim 1,
Using predetermined mapping information, the activity information disclosure possible range is obtained from the access right information of the workflow process or activity managed by the workflow system.
A program that further causes the computer system to execute processing. The program according to claim 1,
When receiving a selection from the user for the recommended field that has been notified, a message indicating link information for the target data of the activity is registered for the recommended field.
A program that further causes the computer system to execute processing. The program according to claim 1,
When receiving a selection from the user for the recommended field that has been notified, the selected recommended field and the scope of communication and the target activity or the process to which the activity belongs are specified as the conditions for recommending the recommended field. And record information
When a request is received from a user that matches the request range of communication that meets the previously recorded conditions, and information that identifies the target activity or process, the recommended place recorded in accordance with the conditions is given to the user. Notice,
A program that further causes the computer system to execute processing. A workflow system that cooperates with an information sharing system having a plurality of information sharing areas with different information disclosure ranges,
Accepting from the user the specification of the communication request range related to activities in the workflow process,
Based on the combination of the specified communication requirement range and the information disclosure possible range of the activity, the recommended disclosure level of the place for communication of the activity is determined,
An information sharing area having an information disclosure range corresponding to the recommended disclosure level that has been obtained is determined as a recommended area,
Notifying the user of the recommended location requested
A method characterized by that. A workflow system that cooperates with an information sharing system having a plurality of information sharing areas with different information disclosure ranges,
Means for accepting from the user specification of a communication request range related to an activity in a workflow process;
A means for determining a recommended level of public disclosure for the communication of the activity based on a combination of the specified communication requirement range and the information disclosure possible range of the activity;
An information sharing area having an information disclosure range corresponding to the recommended disclosure level that has been obtained is determined as a recommended area,
Means for notifying the user of the recommended recommended location;
A workflow system comprising

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