JPH11338938A - Work flow control method using filtering function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make automatically distributable work to each person in charge even in the case of the work which has been sent to a destination representing an organization without designating a specific person in charge by comparing the work, which arrives at the destination to be a new representative of the organization with work processing profile to determine a proper person in charge. SOLUTION: When a work addressed to a representative destination 109 of an organization A arrives, a work flow management part 103 calls work distribution part 105. This part 105 inquires of work contents extraction part 104 to extract contents of this work. Next, the work distribution part 105 compares extracted work contents with a work processing history profile 108 of each person in charge (user). The work processing history profile 108 consists of information of the person in charge, history information, and frequency information. If coinciding or similar items are found as the result of comparison between work contents of the arriving work and the work processing history profile 108 of the person in charge, a newly arriving work is added to the destination of the person in charge (user).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a workflow control method in an information processing system having a workflow function for performing business operations while delivering business operations to a plurality of persons or departments in a predetermined order.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information system having a workflow function of delivering a plurality of business processes in a predetermined order, an information system which determines a delivery order by designating a specific person in charge or an organization in charge of a corresponding business is required. Some are determined by specifying a representative destination. If you decide the delivery order by assigning a specific person, check with the person in advance to determine who will deliver and handle the work.
The delivery order must be determined so that the business is sent to the person in charge. On the other hand, if you specify a destination that represents the organization in charge of the relevant business and deliver the business to that organization, you must wait until one of the persons in the organization retrieves and processes the business. Must.

In some applications, mails and documents are distributed to destinations set as representatives of organizations, and users belonging to the organizations can share and view the mails and documents. In this case, in order for the e-mails and documents to be processed by the appropriate personnel, a skilled person with specialized knowledge must send these e-mails and documents (which arrive at the address established on behalf of the organization). It is necessary to assign to an appropriate person. Conventionally, these operations have been performed manually.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In an information processing system having a workflow function for delivering a plurality of business processes in a predetermined order, when a specific person is designated and the delivery order is designated, who is in charge? Must be determined in advance to determine the delivery order, and such a manual determination of the delivery order manually is troublesome.

[0005] If the person in charge of processing a specific job is unknown or if it is decided to send the job to an organization in advance, a representative address of the organization that processes the job is designated as a delivery order. . In this case, it is uncertain who will take the job when it arrives at the destination that is the representative of the organization, and the job may be left untouched. Alternatively, the work destined for the organization had to be manually distributed to a person who was deemed appropriate within the organization.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and even if a job is sent to a destination representing an organization without designating a specific person in charge, each person in charge can be assigned without assigning the job manually. It is an object of the present invention to provide a workflow control method using a filtering function capable of automatically allocating tasks to users.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, the contents of the business process of each person in charge are stored as a business process profile. Based on this information, a similarity determination function is provided for comparing the business newly arrived at the destination representing the organization with the business processing profile and determining an appropriate person in charge. In addition, in order for the person in charge to handle tasks efficiently, the number of tasks that reach each person in a certain period,
The number of processed jobs, the number of stayed jobs, and the like are monitored, and an appropriate person in charge is determined from such history information.

That is, the invention according to claim 1 provides a method of controlling a workflow in an information processing system having a workflow function of performing a business while delivering business processes to a plurality of persons or departments in a predetermined order. A step of holding a person in charge of processing the work and the contents of the business to be processed by the person in charge as a business processing profile, and, when a new business arrives, refer to the business processing profile to newly arrive. And a step of deciding a person in charge of processing a task that matches or is similar to the contents of the task, and a step of assigning a newly arrived task to the determined person in charge.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the step of deciding the person in charge, all persons in charge of processing tasks that match or are similar to the contents of the newly arrived task are extracted. In the assigning step, the newly arrived business is assigned to all of the persons in charge.

[0010] Claim 3 is based on Claim 1 or 2,
After the allocation of the newly arrived business, the validity of the business allocation is evaluated, the business process profile is updated based on the evaluation result, and the accuracy of the subsequent business allocation is improved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in accordance with the first to third aspects, after the allocation of the newly arrived business, the person who has received the allocation of the business has processed the business, or the other person has not processed the business. It is characterized in that history information as to whether or not it has been transferred to a person in charge is stored in the business processing profile, and the arrived business is sorted based on the history information.

A fifth aspect of the present invention relates to the first or second aspect,
In the step of determining the person in charge, in the step of extracting all persons in charge of processing a job that matches or is similar to the content of the newly arrived job, and assigning the job,
Distribute the newly arrived duties to all of them,
Further, when one of a plurality of persons in charge to whom the work is assigned processes the work, the work assigned to another person is deleted.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a system for distributing work arriving at a destination which is representative of an organization when a plurality of persons (users) belong to an organization. In FIG. 1, a business delivery system (101) includes a user interface unit (102), a workflow management unit (103), a business content extraction unit (104), a business distribution unit (105), a distribution result verification unit (106), Arrival business display (107),
Business process history profile (108), organization A representative destination
(109), user 1 destination (110), user 2 destination (11
1) The user has three destinations (112).

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for allocating work by the system of FIG. With reference to FIG. 2, the assignment of work will be described. When the business addressed to the organization A representative destination (109) arrives (step 202),
The workflow management unit (103) includes a business allocation unit (10
Call 5). The task allocation unit (105) inquires of the task content extraction unit (104) to extract the task content of the arrived task (Step 203). Next, the business allocation unit (1
05) compares the extracted task contents with the task processing history profile of each person in charge (user) (step 20).
4,205).

FIG. 4 shows an example of a business process history profile. The content of this business process history profile is the business process history profile of the person in charge "Taro Yamada", and the same business process history profile is provided for other persons in charge. The business process history profile in FIG. 4 is mainly composed of person-in-charge information, history information, and frequency information.

The person in charge information includes the name of the person in charge, the employee number, the affiliation code, and the information on the assigned tasks. The person in charge information is set in advance. History information is
This is an area for storing a history of when the person in charge processed or transferred the business. The history information includes the control number, date, presence or absence of attached documents, attached document format, request document keywords,
It consists of a sorting section and a processing section. The history information is all blank in an initial state in which the person in charge is not working. When the person in charge processes or transfers the work, the management number is assigned in order from the first and the history is stored. The date is the date when the person in charge processed or transferred the business. The presence / absence of the attached document and the format of the attached document are a format number indicating the presence / absence of the document attached to the business and the format thereof. The request document keyword is a keyword that appears in the business content. The assignment classification indicates whether the task is a task automatically assigned to the person in charge by the present system or a task transferred to another person in charge by another person in charge. The processing category indicates whether this person in charge has processed the task or transferred it to another person in charge.
The frequency information is an area for counting the frequency when the person in charge processes or transfers the business. The frequency information includes package format information and frequency information. The frequency information is the frequency corresponding to the format of the package insert, and the column of the number of processing times to be counted when processing the package insert of that format, and when the business of the package insert of that format is transferred to another person in charge The column of the number of times of transfer is counted up.

Returning to FIG. 2 again, as a result of comparing the work contents of the arrived work with the work processing history profile of the person in charge (step 205), if there is a match or similar item, the person in charge (use The newly arrived business is added to the person's personal address (step 206). afterwards,
Returning to step 204, the processes from step 204 are repeated for the profiles of all users belonging to the organization. If there is no similar item in step 205, the process returns to step 204 to repeat the processing. When the comparison with the business process history profiles of all users is completed in step 204, it is determined whether or not there is an assignment destination of the business (step 207). If there is, the process proceeds to step 209; The task is added to the personal address for the administrator, and the process proceeds to step 209. In step 209, it is determined whether or not the processing is completed. If not, the process returns to step 202 to continue the processing.

By the above processing, the organization A representative destination 109
Will automatically be assigned to the person in charge of the task that matches or is similar to the content of the task. In particular, when there are a plurality of persons in charge, the work is assigned to all of those persons.

In the comparison between the work contents of the work that has arrived in step 205 and the work processing history profile of the person in charge, it is assumed that the criteria for determining the presence or absence of similar items are determined in advance. For example, if the format of the attached document in the business process history profile is the same or similar (if the number of the attached document format is close, the format is similar)
Alternatively, when the request document keywords match or are similar, it is determined that there is a similar item. If the distribution category is "transfer", it means that the job has been transferred by specifying the person in charge by name, and therefore, the job is appropriate for the person in charge.
5 to 206). If the processing category is "Transfer", it means that the task was transferred to another person in charge, so if the frequency of transfer is high, it is better to assign the task to another person. Yes (ie, step 206 should be skipped). Further, the determination may be made based on the number of times of processing of the attached document format.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for verifying the distribution result of the present system. The user (person in charge) activates the user interface unit (102). The user interface unit (102) is a workflow management unit (103)
And retrieves the work assigned to the user. At this time, the workflow management unit (103) makes an inquiry to the arriving operation display unit (107) to create a list of arriving operations (step 302). The user performs business processing by selecting from the business list.

When the creation of the business list is completed (step 3
03), the workflow management unit (103) calls the distribution result verification unit (106) and monitors the operation of the user (Step 304). If the user has processed the business, the same business assigned to another user destination is notified that processing has been completed, and is deleted from those user destinations (step 305). Also, a workflow management unit (103)
Invokes the business content extraction unit (104), extracts the business content, feeds back the result to the business process history profile (108) (step 306), and returns to step 303. In step 304, if the user's operation is an instruction to transfer the job to another user without processing, the fact is fed back to the job processing history profile (108), and the process returns to step 303. When the operation of the user is completed, the user interface section ends (step 307).

The feedback to the business process history profile (108) is, specifically, a process of storing history information on processing or transfer of the business and setting / updating frequency information of the number of processes and the number of transfers.

As described above, the work arriving at the destination representing the organization can be performed without being manually sorted.
Tasks can be automatically distributed to persons in charge of similar tasks. In particular, since the history information and the frequency information are stored and the distribution is performed according to the information, the precision of the distribution to the person in charge increases every time the business is processed or transferred. In addition, since the tasks are distributed to a plurality of persons in charge, the throughput of the task processing is increased without delaying the tasks in the entire system.

Each person in charge may be provided with a function of ranking and displaying the jobs in the order of the highest priority.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In an information processing system that has a workflow function that delivers multiple business processes in a predetermined order, even if the business is sent to a representative destination without designating a specific person in charge, the work must be manually distributed. Not
Tasks can be automatically assigned to each person in charge. According to this method, it is possible to eliminate the task of examining a specific person in charge and specifying the order in which business processes are to be delivered, and the task of allocating tasks arriving at a destination representing an organization to specialized workers who are familiar with the tasks. .

Further, it is possible to evaluate whether or not the result of the task assignment is appropriate and feed back the result to the task assignment means, thereby enabling more appropriate task distribution.
Furthermore, the burden on the user is further reduced by improving the accuracy of the assignment to the appropriate person in charge. In addition, tasks are allocated to a plurality of persons in charge, and when a person in charge processes the task, another person in charge deletes the task. Therefore, the throughput of the task processing increases without interruption of the task as a whole system. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of task allocation according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of task assignment according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a distribution result verification according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a business process history profile.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Business delivery system, 102: User interface unit, 103: Workflow management unit, 104: Business content extraction unit, 105: Business distribution unit, 106: Distribution result verification unit, 107: Arrival business display unit, 108: Business processing History profile, 109: Organization A representative destination, 110: User 1 destination, 111: User 2 destination, 112: User 3
destination.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method for controlling a workflow in an information processing system having a workflow function of performing a business while delivering business processes to a plurality of persons in charge or departments in a predetermined order. A step of holding a person in charge and the contents of the work to be processed by the person in charge as a work processing profile; and when a new work arrives, referring to the work processing profile, matches or is similar to the contents of the newly arrived work. A workflow control method, comprising: a step of determining a person in charge of a task to be performed, and a step of assigning a newly arrived task to the determined person in charge. 2. In the step of deciding a person in charge, all persons in charge of processing tasks that match or are similar to the contents of a newly arrived task are extracted. 2. The workflow control method according to claim 1, wherein tasks newly arrived for all persons are sorted. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein after allocating the newly arrived business, the validity of the business allocation is evaluated, the business processing profile is updated based on the evaluation result, and the accuracy of the subsequent business allocation is improved. The workflow control method according to claim 1, wherein: 4. History information indicating whether a person who has received a task assignment has processed the task after the assignment of the newly arrived task or transferred the task to another person without performing the task. The workflow control method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the task processing profile is stored in the task processing profile, and the arrived task is sorted based on the history information. 5. In the step of determining a person in charge, all persons in charge of processing tasks that match or are similar to the contents of the newly arrived task are extracted. And assigning the newly arrived service to all the persons, and when one of a plurality of persons in charge of the task has processed the task, the task assigned to another person is deleted. Control method of the workflow described in 4.