Task-based process definition

摘要

A facility for guiding users through a series of steps or tasks, often associated with a process, is described. The facility assigns tasks or steps to users having roles identified with the task or step. The role associated with the task or step may change depending on the state of the task or step. When the role associated with a task or step changes, the facility may assign the task or step to another user. The facility guides a user through a task or step by providing instructions and other information, such as data tables and user input fields, that may be used to complete the task or step. The facility provides for the definition of processes by allowing users to specify tasks, steps and instructions relating to processes.

主权项

1. A method for specifying a process definition for a process, wherein the specifying the process definition comprises:
processing a plurality of user inputs associated with the process and received at a computing system, wherein the plurality of user inputs specify:
a series of tasks that define the process,plurality of steps that define an initial task of the series of tasks,instructions for completing the plurality of steps of the initial task,a plurality of states for the initial task associated with the plurality of steps, anda plurality of roles for the initial task associated with the plurality of states of the initial task; executing a runtime instance of the process, wherein
each of the plurality of states is used to identify a corresponding role of the plurality of roles for each step of the plurality of steps,the plurality of roles are used to identify a plurality of users who are responsible for completing the steps of the initial task, andeach user of the plurality of users is associated with a specific step of the initial task; and updating for the initial task, a state of the plurality of states upon completion of a step of the plurality of steps of the initial task, wherein the state of the plurality of states is updated if the corresponding role of the plurality of roles associated with the state of the plurality of states has changed, and wherein the process definition of the process is created based on the processing of the plurality of user inputs, wherein the plurality of user inputs are received at a user interface of the computer system,
the series of tasks are associated with a set of business rules managed independently by an object manager, andthe object manager provides an abstraction layer between the user interface of the computer system and implementation of the series of tasks by a data manager, and the data manager provides logical views of data to the user and allow the object manager to function independently of underlying data structure.