Method for specifying, deploying and dynamically updating work flows

US7784021B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Neil H. Boyette · Oregon City, US
• Isaac Kam-Chak Cheng · San Jose, US
• Vikas Krishna · San Jose, US
• Savitha Srinivasan · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 2, 2006
• Grant date: Aug 24, 2010
• Expiry date: Jun 24, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/06
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method for specifying, deploying and updating work flows. A work flow comprising manual and automatic steps is created in a computing system A first XML schema set represents the automatic steps. The XML schemas in the first XML schema set identify software routines for performing the automatic steps. A second XML schema set represents the manual steps. The XML schemas in the second XML schema set include instructions directing human representatives to perform the manual steps. A runtime component executes the first and second XML schema sets. Without terminating the runtime component, a manual step is represented in an XML schema to be added to the first set. Representing the manual step includes transforming the manual step into an automatic step represented in the XML schema and adding to the XML schema a class name and method name identifying a software routine that performs the automatic step.