JP2570974B2 - Concurrent office business support equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting a person who executes a plurality of tasks in a task using a tool on a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a business in an office or the like, it is usually required to execute a plurality of businesses in parallel. For example, requesting another person to perform a certain process, proceeding with another process while waiting for the answer, interrupting or ending the current job when the answer comes, and returning to the previous job. Is being done. In particular, this tendency is remarkable in an environment where communication means by electronic media such as e-mail can be used due to the spread of computers and OA equipment in offices.

As a technique for performing a plurality of tasks in parallel, there is a task execution environment based on a multi-window system typified by MS-WINDOWS and X-WINDOWS. The user performs a plurality of tasks by using a plurality of windows, and sequentially switches windows.
Perform multiple tasks in parallel. In addition, IPSJ Transactions Vol. 33, no. In the method described in No. 11 “Interface system TACT supporting job switching”, a workspace (work)
space) is used. The progress of the task is recorded in the workspace, and the user switches his / her task by switching the workspace.

[0004]

However, when a plurality of processes are being executed, when new information is obtained by e-mail, for example, a decision regarding a process schedule such as which business process is to be resumed is made. Were all left to the business users. Leaving such a decision to the user increases the burden on the user and makes it difficult to carry out the work efficiently.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to manage the execution status of an application on a computer used in business processing and the processing status of a business, and when a suspended business can be resumed due to the processing status of the business, this effect is managed. By notifying the user,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a task execution support environment in which a plurality of tasks can be used interactively in parallel.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a business support apparatus having input / output means for a user and an application execution unit for executing business processing, and supporting the user in performing a parallel business. A business information storage unit commonly used by a plurality of business applications, an application execution status storage unit that stores the status of an application being executed or suspended, and command and parameter information necessary for executing the application. The application information database to be stored, the business information storage unit and the information of the application execution status storage unit are monitored one by one,
A business information monitoring unit that notifies the application execution control unit of an application that can be started; and information registered in the application execution status storage unit using information of the application information database according to an instruction from the business information monitoring unit. And an application execution control unit for giving an application execution instruction to the application execution unit.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concurrent office business support apparatus according to the present invention. The concurrent office business support device includes a business information monitoring unit 1 and a business information storage unit 2
, Application execution status storage unit 3, application execution control unit 4, application information DB5
, An application execution unit 6, an input unit 7, and an output unit 8.

In the present invention, execution control of a plurality of business processing applications activated by a user for business processing is performed through dialogue with the user using two pieces of information, business information and application execution status.

In the business information storage unit 2, information obtained by execution of an application by a user and an attribute of the information are written as a pair. For example, when a document is created using an application, the body of the document, a description indicating the content of the document, and the like are written as business information.

A business processing request (activation of an application) from a user is sent to an application execution control unit 4 through an input means 7. Application execution control
The unit 4 searches the application information DB 5 for the specified processing content, and notifies the application execution status storage unit 3 of the corresponding application information. The information notified at this time is an attribute of a parameter required to start the corresponding application.

The application execution status storage unit 3 registers information from the application execution control unit 4 as a start condition. Further, the business information monitoring unit 1 is notified that new information has been registered.

The business information monitoring unit 1 monitors the business information storage unit 2 one by one and determines whether an application currently registered in the application execution status storage unit 3 can be started. Further, when a new application is started in accordance with an instruction from the user, a start condition of the newly registered application information (in this case, an application start parameter ) Is read from the application execution status storage unit 3 and information that satisfies the conditions is obtained by inquiring the business information storage unit 2 or the user. If information necessary for starting (or resuming) a new or currently suspended application is prepared, the application execution control unit 4 is notified of the start or resumption of the application. At the same time, when information is obtained from the user, the information is notified to the business information storage unit 2.

The application execution control unit 4 combines the information on the application start method registered in the application information DB 5 with the parameter information obtained from the business information monitoring unit 1 and instructs the application execution unit 6 to start the application. . Information obtained by executing the application is sent to the business information storage unit 2 and recorded.

The information in the business information storage unit 2 is also updated by a plurality of other processes (for example, an application for monitoring an electronic mail or the like). In this way, by monitoring the business information updated as the business progresses and notifying the user when the suspended process can be resumed, the user can be aware of the order of the multiple business processes. Work can be carried out smoothly without having to do so.

Hereinafter, a specific example will be described.

Now, consider a case where a business person holds a conference. As a task of the person in charge, first, the schedule of the meeting attendees is checked, and after the schedule of the attendees has been adjusted, a notice of holding the meeting is created. However, it is usually necessary to wait for the response of the person to be confirmed for the schedule confirmation, and during that time, other work such as writing a draft of the notice of the meeting is performed. At this point, the person in charge performs the two tasks of adjusting the schedule of the meeting attendees and creating the notice of holding the meeting in parallel.

When using the device according to the present invention, the person in charge enters the application execution control unit 4 through the input means 7.
Is instructed to execute “schedule check” (703).

The application execution control unit 4 searches the application information DB 5 and executes "Schedule confirmation".
The start condition and the restart condition are obtained (402, 50).
1).

FIG. 2 shows an example of the application information data. In the case of this example, in order to start the application for schedule confirmation, the information indicated by “Confirmation target person” and “Confirmation schedule” is necessary, and resumption must be “Respond from confirmation target person” Indicates that it is possible if is satisfied. In the figure, the value of the information attribute is indicated by the symbol “＄”. The start condition and the restart condition obtained here are notified to the application execution status storage unit 3.

In the application execution status storage unit 3,
The start condition and the restart condition notified from the application execution control unit 4 are registered in the table shown in FIG. 3 in association with the task name (“schedule check” in the present embodiment). "Status" in the table includes "Preparation to start",
A description such as "pause" or "execution" is described, and is used to manage the task execution status. Here, "Start preparation"
Indicates that the start condition for starting the application for executing the task is being checked. When a new task is registered, the application execution status storage unit 3 notifies the business information monitoring unit 1 of the table number (30).
1).

The business information monitoring unit 1 receives the notification from the application execution status storage unit 3, and reads out the start condition of the corresponding table number from the application execution status storage unit 3. In the case of the present embodiment, if the information attributes indicated by “confirmation target person” and “confirmation schedule” are obtained, the activation condition is satisfied. If the task with the corresponding table number is “start preparation”, the task information monitoring unit 1 performs information acquisition processing in the following order to satisfy the start condition.

First, an inquiry is made to the business information storage unit 2 as to whether or not there is target information (102, 201). If the target information cannot be obtained from the business information storage unit 2, a question sentence relating to the target information is generated, and information is obtained from the user through the output means 8 and the input means 7 (101,
701). The question sentence to be presented to the user is, for example, "Please input the person to be confirmed", and is performed by using a question sentence template registered in advance. In any case, the obtained information is notified to the business information storage unit 2 and stored (102). When the information is obtained and the activation condition is satisfied, the activation of the corresponding task and the acquired information are notified to the application execution control unit 4 (103).

The application execution control unit 4 receives the start notification from the business information monitoring unit 1 and obtains command information of a corresponding task (in this embodiment, “schedule check”) from the application information DB 5. By combining the command information and the start information, a command is generated and notified to the application execution unit (401).
For example, the activation information obtained by the business information monitoring unit 1 is “Ishiguro” for “Confirmation target person” and “930701” for “Confirmation schedule”.
Then, a command “Schedule Ishiguro 930701” for confirming the schedule is generated based on the command information “Schedule {confirmation target person} confirmation schedule” obtained from the application information DB 5.

In the application execution section 6, the processing of the application is actually executed.
The process of asking for the schedule of 30701 "is performed (for example, using a tool such as an e-mail). Until a reply is returned, further processing cannot be continued. For example, another task such as “creating a notice for holding a conference” is started. The table information managed by the application execution status storage unit 3 at the stage when the “meeting for holding a conference” task is being executed is as shown in FIG.

The business information storage unit 2 is a kind of shared memory in which the progress of business is described, and can be rewritten by another process such as an application for monitoring e-mail. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the progress of a task is described by two elements, an attribute and its attribute value. When a response from Mr. Ishiguro is returned in response to the previous request for “schedule check”, it is assumed that information having the attribute “Replied (Ishiguro)” and the attribute value “YES” is written in the business information storage unit 2.

The business information monitoring unit 1 constantly monitors information in the business information storage unit 2 and stores “Re” in the business information storage unit 2.
at the time when the information “plied (Ishiguro)” is written, the restart condition “Repl” of the “schedule check” task registered in the table of the application execution status storage unit 3
ied (＄ confirmed person) ”is detected (20
1,301). Here, the attribute of the person to be confirmed is replaced with the attribute value “Ishiguro” by the information in the business information storage unit 2. The business information monitoring unit 1 notifies the user that the “schedule check” task can be resumed (101), obtains confirmation from the user (701), and sends a “schedule check” to the application execution control unit 4. An instruction is issued to restart the "confirmation" task (103).

In response to a restart instruction from the task information monitoring unit 1, the application execution control unit 4 puts the currently executing task “create conference notification” into the application execution status storage unit 3 and suspends the task. "
A notification is made to put the task into an execution state (403). In addition, with the suspension of the "Create meeting notification" application,
The application execution unit 6 is notified of the resumption of the "schedule check" application (401).

If the date of the conference is determined by resuming the "schedule confirmation" application in the application execution unit 6, the information is also stored in the business information storage unit in the format of, for example, the attribute "conference date" and the attribute value "930701". 2 is notified (602). When the execution of the application in the application execution unit 6 is completed,
This is notified to the application execution control unit 4 (60
3).

The application execution control unit 4 receives the application execution end notification, and requests the application execution status storage unit 3 to delete the task corresponding to the application (in this embodiment, “schedule check”). In the application execution status storage unit 3, information relating to the "schedule check" task is deleted.

As described above, a plurality of tasks can be advanced in parallel according to the progress of the task. Further, in the present embodiment, an example of a task due to a time-series constraint that the next processing does not proceed unless certain information is obtained is described. However, the management of a task having a deadline is also performed according to the restart condition as shown in FIG. Can be set by setting. here,
It is assumed that the condition “Time (＄ deadline)” is satisfied when the clock managed by the system reaches the time (or date) indicated by ＄ deadline. When the deadline is reached, a message of task activation is notified to the user according to the judgment of the system.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to control the execution order of a plurality of tasks and manage the deadline. In addition, since the execution control is performed by the dialogue with the user, the business can be efficiently performed without imposing a burden on the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a concurrent office work support device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in an application information DB according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a table managed by an application execution status storage unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a table managed by an application execution status storage unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of data managed by a business information storage unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of application information data when deadline management is performed in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Business information monitoring part 2 Business information storage part 3 Application execution status storage part 4 Application execution control part 5 Application information DB 6 Application execution part 7 Input means 8 Output means

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A business support device having input / output means for a user and an application execution unit for executing a business process, wherein the business support device supports a user in performing a parallel business. An application information storage unit that stores a status of an application being executed or suspended, an application information database that stores command and parameter information necessary for executing the application, A business information monitoring unit that monitors information in a business information storage unit and the application execution status storage unit one by one, and notifies an application execution control unit of an application that can be started; and an instruction from the business information monitoring unit. Using the information in the information database, the application Deployment Concurrent office work support device, wherein the application execution control section that performs application execution instruction, to have a to the execution status information registration and application execution unit to the storage unit. 2. A business information storage unit in which a business progress status of a user is described, a business information monitoring unit for monitoring business information and acquiring application startup information, and an application execution control unit for controlling application startup. An application information DB that stores application startup information; and an application execution status storage unit that manages application execution status and startup conditions. The business information monitoring unit monitors the business information storage unit one by one, Check the start conditions of the currently running or paused application registered in the execution status storage unit, and if the start conditions are satisfied, notify the user to that effect and instruct the corresponding application by the user's instruction. Concurrent office business characterized by resuming Assistance devices.