JP3489466B2 - Work process structure display device and structure display method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure display device and a structure display method for a work process, and more particularly to an execution process based on the execution state and execution result of each task in a workflow and the parent-child relationship between the history of each task information. The present invention relates to a structure display device and a structure display method for a work process, which displays a process and a history and is suitable for application to a workflow support system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an office, a series of procedures are required to perform a certain work, and the work is generally composed of a plurality of partial work connections. This partial work may be local to a particular department or distributed across a network. Such a work flow is called a workflow. Further, there is a workflow support system for grasping and managing the status of jobs in which a plurality of jobs are distributed and carried out in parallel.

Generally, the history of a workflow in which the execution state and execution result of each task are recorded is linear in the case of a flow in which another partial task is started based on the end result of a certain partial task. It becomes a line. In addition, when another partial task must be executed to complete one partial task, there is a hierarchical structure based on the partial whole relationship of the tasks. This is because the workflow support system is generally performed according to a top-down program that breaks down the work that must be performed for a certain purpose into parts. The structure of such history is linear or tree structure. Therefore, when the task history is to be displayed, the task can be simply arranged on the plane of the display screen as it is, and the user can easily recognize the structure and can easily see the structure.

As an example of such a workflow support system, the workflow support system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63747 by the present applicant is well known. This workflow support system realizes bottom-up workflow management that finds a new purpose based on the result of a task.

[0005]

However, in the case of the workflow support system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63747, there may be a plurality of parent tasks of a certain task, so that the history is no longer hierarchical. Is not always formed, and there is a problem that it is difficult to recognize the history structure in the normal display of the hierarchical structure. That is, in the conventional simple tree structure display, the child tasks of the plurality of parent tasks are displayed in an overlapping manner, which is very difficult to see. Also, it is still difficult to read the structure correctly by simply shifting them so that they do not overlap. There is also a problem in that it is difficult to understand the temporal context by simply shifting the overlapping part in a plane.

[0006] Therefore, the user wants to read the structure of the task history under a certain purpose. While switching the recognition aspect for each purpose, the user can change the structure of the task history as a tree structure from each parent. There is a request to refer.

The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and a user switches a recognition aspect for a task structure such that a task has a plurality of parent tasks for a task in a workflow. However, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure display device and a structure display method of a work process that can be referred to as a tree structure from each parent.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above problems, in a work process structure display device for displaying a structure between tasks in a workflow, the execution status and execution result of each task in the workflow are displayed as task information. Task history information storage means for storing the history of each task information, task connection information storage means for storing the parent-child relationship between the history of each task information as connection information, and the task based on the task information and the task connection information When there are a plurality of parent tasks, each parent is a separate layer, and a layer decomposition processing unit that decomposes tasks having a parent-child relationship by layer, and a layer / tag generation processing unit that generates a unique tag corresponding to each layer, A tree structure that generates display data that arranges task parent-child relationships in a tree structure for tasks decomposed into layers Structure display device of a work process is provided which is characterized in that it comprises a picture processing means.

According to such a work process structure display device, the layer decomposition processing means checks the parent-child relationship between task histories from the task connection information stored in the task connection information storage means, and there are a plurality of parent tasks. In this case, a layer is generated for each parent task, the layer / tag generation processing means tags those layers, and the tree structure drawing processing means arranges the tasks in each layer in a tree structure. . As a result, the task structure has a tree structure in the layer, so that the task history is arranged in an easily viewable manner.

Further, according to the present invention, in the structure display method of the work process for displaying the structure between tasks in the workflow, the identifier of a certain task is associated with one layer as a tag, and the root hierarchy of the layer. Initialize the value, and search the record that has the task identifier of the tag task associated with the layer from the task connection information that represents the parent-child relationship between the history of each task information,
When one record is retrieved, the task identifier of the tag associated with the layer is used as the parent task identifier of the retrieved record and the root hierarchy value is incremented by 1,
When multiple records are found, a new layer is created according to the number of found records, and the task identifier of the tag associated with each layer is used as the parent task identifier of the found record. Incrementing the root hierarchical value of each layer by 1 is repeated until all existing layers are finished. When no records are found, a tree structure with the task identifier of the tag associated with each layer as the root is drawn. A method for displaying the structure of a work process is provided.

According to this work process structure display method, it is determined whether or not there are a plurality of parent tasks by searching the record having the task identifier which is the identifier of the tag associated with each layer from the task connection information. If there are a plurality of parent tasks, a corresponding number of layers are newly generated, and a tree structure having the parent task as a root is drawn in each layer. Accordingly, when the task structure is displayed by separating the layers each time the parent task exists, the task history structure can be referred to as a tree structure from each parent.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a principle configuration of a work process structure display device of the present invention. A work process structure display device according to the present invention includes a task history information storage unit 1, a task connection information storage unit 2, a layer decomposition processing unit 3, a layer tag generation processing unit 4, and a tree structure drawing processing unit 5. , Layer / tag switching processing means 6,
A three-dimensional task display drawing processing means 7 is provided, and a display device is connected to the output of the tree structure drawing processing means 5 or the three-dimensional task display drawing processing means 7.

The task history information storage means 1 stores the execution state and execution result of each task generated in the workflow as a history of task information, and the task connection information storage means 2 stores the parent-child relationship between the history of each task information. Stored as connection information. The layer decomposition processing means 3 receives the task information and the task connection information stored in the task history information storage means 1 and the task connection information storage means 2, respectively, and determines whether there is a task having a plurality of parent tasks from the task connection information. If a task has a plurality of parent tasks, a separate layer is set for each parent, and tasks having a parent-child relationship are decomposed into layers.
The layer / tag generation processing means 4 attaches a unique tag to each of the plurality of layers thus created for each parent. The tree structure drawing processing means 5 generates display data in which a parent-child relationship of tasks is arranged in a tree structure for the tasks decomposed into layers, and sends the display data to the display device 8 to display the task structure. The layer / tag switching processing means 6 switches the display of the layers by selecting the tag corresponding to each layer generated by the layer / tag generation processing means 4 as necessary, and the user can change the display for each purpose. The task structure can be displayed as a tree structure from each parent while switching the recognition aspect.
Further, the three-dimensional task display drawing processing unit 7 sets each layer in the direction orthogonal to the plane on which the tree structure is displayed with respect to the display data generated by the tree structure drawing processing unit 5, as necessary. By arranging three-dimensionally with a certain distance, it is possible to display the projection with the viewpoint moved to an arbitrary position on the spherical surface surrounding the arranged structure.

According to the above configuration, the layer decomposition processing means 3 looks at the parent-child relationship between the task histories from the task connection information, and if there are a plurality of connections from the child task to the parent task, each parent task A layer is created for each layer, and the layer / tag generation processing means 4 tags these layers,
The tree structure drawing processing means 5 generates display data in which tasks are arranged in a tree structure in each layer, and displays the display data on the display device 8. As a result, the structure becomes a tree structure in the layer, and the arrangement can be made easy to see.

Further, in the tree structure drawing processing means 5, when drawing a tree structure, a time axis is taken in a direction orthogonal to the arrangement by the parent-child relationship, and a frame of a length from the start of the task to the completion is placed at the time point. In this way, the user can simultaneously read the hierarchical partial whole relation of the work and the performance period schedule.

By enabling the layer / tag switching processing means 6 to select the tag corresponding to each layer, the user sequentially selects the layers and displays a tree structure that is easy to recognize according to the purpose. be able to.

Further, three-dimensional task display drawing processing means 7
Now, by displaying each layer in 3D at the same time from an arbitrary viewpoint, the user can simultaneously recognize a tree structure according to the purpose and a structure of surrounding work that has a different purpose but is related. Can be read.

Next, a case where the embodiment of the present invention is applied to a workflow support system on a distributed system connected by a network will be described as an example. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a distributed system. In FIG. 2, a plurality of terminals 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and a server machine 16 are connected to a LAN (local area network) 17. A database 18 is installed in the server machine 16, and the database 18 includes at least task history information 18a, which is task information of the execution result of a task generated in a workflow, and connection information indicating a parent-child relationship between the history of each task information. Task connection information 18b
Is stored. Actually, the database 18 stores various kinds of information such as design information in addition to these pieces of information, but here, for the sake of simplicity, only the information regarding the history of the display target is shown. . Further, for example, the terminal 11 includes a LAN adapter 21 connected to the LAN 17, a central processing unit (CPU) 22, and a memory 2.
3, a graphic circuit 24, and an external storage device 25, which are interconnected by a bus 26. The graphic circuit 24 is connected to a monitor 27 that displays a work process structure.

The program of the workflow support system is stored in, for example, the external storage device 25, and has a task structure display processing unit of the work process therein. When displaying the task structure of the history, the program of the task structure display processing unit is loaded from the external storage device 25 into the memory 23 and executed by the central processing unit 22. The result of program execution is displayed on the monitor 27 via the graphic circuit 24.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the task structure display processing unit. In FIG. 3, the task structure display processing unit 30
Is a layer decomposition processing unit 31, which receives the task history information 18a and the task connection information 18b acquired from the database 18 of the server machine 16 via the LAN 17, a layer tag generation processing unit 32, and a tree structure drawing processing unit 33. , A layer / tag switching processing unit 34 and a three-dimensional task display drawing processing unit 35. The task structure display processing unit 30 is also associated with a layer drawing area 36 allocated in a part of the memory 23 or in the memory of the graphic circuit 24, and the output of the three-dimensional task display drawing processing unit 35 is connected to the monitor 27. .

The task history information 18a and the task connection information 18b are stored in the database 18 in the form of tables, and examples of the data are shown below. It should be noted that, here, for simplification of the description, only the minimum items necessary for the description are shown.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the task history information table. As shown in FIG. 4, the task history information table includes fields of a task ID (identifier), a task name, a task start date and a task end date, and a task deadline date. In this task history information table, IDs are recorded for all the tasks generated in the workflow.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the task connection information table. As shown in FIG. 5, the task connection information table is composed of fields of task IDs and parent task IDs, and shows tasks having a parent-child relationship in a task ID correspondence table.

Here, the horizontal axis represents time of the task relationship shown in the task history information shown in FIG. 4 and the task connection information shown in FIG. 5, and the vertical axis represents the hierarchical level of parent-child relationship. The task structure is displayed by arranging it, but a display example in that case will be described below.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of the task structure when it is displayed without any processing. Figure 6 shows task A1
The task structure around -2 is displayed without any processing regarding task placement. Here, the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the hierarchical level of parent-child relationship. Also,
Each task is indicated by a frame having a length from the task start time to the task end time.

As shown in the figure, at the same hierarchical level, tasks having overlapping portions in time are displayed in an overlapping manner.
From this display, it is difficult to recognize the task structure.

From the display shown in the figure, the task C1-2 has two parents, that is, the task A1-2 and the task C1, and the task A1-2 has two parent tasks, that is, the task A1 and the task B1. I understand.

Therefore, the layer decomposition processing section 31 checks whether or not there is a task having a plurality of such parent tasks, and if there are a plurality of parent tasks, it is possible to display them in separate layers. To do. This is because the layer decomposition processing unit 31 uses the task ID of the task connection information table
This is done by searching for a record having the same task ID value from the field. In the example of FIG. 5, there are two task IDs = TA0012 and two task IDs = TC0012, and the parent of TA0012 is TA.
Parents of 0001, TB0001, and TC0012 are TA
It can be seen that they are 0012 and TC0001. That is, the parent of task A1-2 is task A1, task B1, and the parent of task C1-2 is task A1-2, task C1.

The parent task thus obtained is
A tag switch is provided in each of the layer / tag generation processing unit 32. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the tag switch, where (A) shows the tag switch of the parent task for the task at the lowest hierarchical level, and (B) shows the tag switch of the parent task for the selected task. ing.
Since the parents of the task C1-2 are the task A1-2 and the task C1, the tag switches of the task A1-2 and the task C1 are generated as shown in (A).
You can choose which parent to display. This processing is performed by the layer / tag switching processing unit 34.

Here, task A1-2 and task C1
If the tag switch of task A1-2 is selected and the tag switch of task A1-2 is selected, its parent task A
Since it becomes necessary to select 1 and task B1 as well, their tag switches are also shown as shown in (B).

An example of displaying the task structure when each tag switch is selected will be described below. First,
FIG. 8 shows the display contents when the tag switch of task C1 is selected.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of the task structure displayed when a certain tag switch is selected. When the tag switch of task C1 is selected, this task C1
Only the tasks of the layer assigned to the task C1 are shown, and all tasks having the task C1 as a parent, here, task C1-
2 is displayed.

FIG. 9 shows the display contents when the tag switch of task A1 is selected from the tag switches shown in FIG. 7B. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure displayed when another tag switch is selected. When the tag switch of the task A1 is selected, only the tasks of the layer assigned to the task A1 are shown, and the structures of all child tasks having the task A1 as a parent and their descendant tasks are displayed.

FIG. 10 shows the display contents when the tag switch of task B1 is selected from the tag switches shown in FIG. 7B. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of the task structure displayed when another tag switch is selected. When the tag switch of the task B1 is selected, only the tasks of the layer assigned to the task B1 are shown in this case as well, and the structure of all child tasks having the task B1 as a parent and tasks of their descendants Is displayed.

As described above, in the case of a structure having a plurality of parents, each parent is divided into layers which are different display areas, and each layer has a tree structure to enable easy-to-see display. There is.

Next, the flow of processing in the above task structure display processing section will be described. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of the task structure display processing unit. First, the ID of one target task to be displayed is given (step S1), and then the number of layers is initialized to "1" and the ID of the target task is associated with this layer as a tag (step S2). , And the root layer value in this layer is initialized to “0” (step S
3).

Then, the task connection information table is searched for a record having the task ID of the tag task associated with each layer (step S4). As a result of the search, it is determined whether or not a record is found (step S5). Here, when one record is found, the task ID of the tag associated with this layer is set as the ID of the parent task of the found record (step S
6) Increase the layer value of this layer by 1 (step S
7). When there are a plurality of found records, a new layer of the number of found records-1 is newly generated, and the task IDs associated with the original layer and the generated layers are associated with the parent of the found record. Task I
D is set (step S8), and the root layer value of the original layer and the newly generated layer is set to a value obtained by incrementing the layer value of the original layer by 1 (step S9).

The above steps S4 to S9 are repeated for all existing layers. Then, if it is determined in step S5 that no record is found as a result of the search, a tree structure whose root is the task ID of the tag associated with each layer is drawn (step S10).

Next, another method of displaying the task structure will be described. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure in which each layer is three-dimensionally arranged and displayed. In the three-dimensional task display drawing processing unit 35, each layer is three-dimensionally arranged with a certain distance in the direction orthogonal to the plane displaying each tree structure, and the viewpoint is placed at an arbitrary position on the spherical surface surrounding the arranged structure. The projection of the moved state is displayed.

The display example itself shown in FIG. 12 cannot be said to be easy to see, but it can be rotated by shifting the viewpoint. Therefore, it is possible to change the movement when rotated and to color-code each layer. , It becomes possible to understand the relationship across layers, the hierarchical relationship, and the temporal order relationship at the same time.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, each time there is a parent task, another layer is generated and the tree structure having the parent task as the root is used to display the task history structure. As a result, even if a task has a plurality of parent tasks in the history of the workflow, the user can sequentially select the layers and display a tree structure that is easy to recognize according to the purpose. Further, by displaying the time axis at the same time and arranging the tasks performed along the passage of time, it is possible to read the hierarchical partial whole relation of the work and the performance period schedule at the same time. Further, by performing the three-dimensional display, it is possible to read the tree structure that is easy to recognize according to the purpose and the structure of the surrounding work that has another purpose but is related.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a principle configuration of a structure display device for a work process according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a distributed system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a task structure display processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a task history information table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a task connection information table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure when displayed without performing any processing.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a tag switch, which is (A).
Shows the tag switch of the parent task for the task at the lowest hierarchical level, and (B) shows the tag switch of the parent task for the selected task.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure displayed when a certain tag switch is selected.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure displayed when another tag switch is selected.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure displayed when another tag switch is selected.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of a task structure display processing unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example of a task structure in which each layer is three-dimensionally arranged and displayed.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Task history information storage means 2-task connection information storage means 3 layer decomposition processing means 4 layer tag generation processing means 5 Tree structure drawing processing means 6 layer tag switching processing means 7 3D task display drawing processing means 8 display devices 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 terminals 16 server machines 17 LAN (local area network) 18 Database 18a Task history information 18b Task connection information 21 LAN adapter 22 Central processing unit (CPU) 23 memory 24 graphic circuits 25 external storage 26 bus 27 monitors 30 Task structure display processing unit 31 layer decomposition processing unit 32 layer tag generation processing unit 33 Tree Structure Drawing Processing Unit 34 Layer / Tag switching processing unit 35 3D task display drawing processing unit 36 layer drawing area

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Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A work process structure display device for displaying a structure between tasks in a workflow, comprising task history information storage means for storing a performance state and a performance result of each task in the workflow as a history of task information, and each task information. Task connection information storage means for storing the parent-child relationship between the histories as connection information, and when there are a plurality of parent tasks for a task based on the task information and task connection information, each parent is placed in a different layer. A layer decomposition processing unit that decomposes tasks that have a parent-child relationship into layers, a layer tag generation processing unit that generates a unique tag corresponding to each layer, and a task parent-child relationship for the tasks decomposed into layers A tree structure drawing processing means for generating display data arranged in a structure, and Structure display device of process. Wherein said tree structure drawing processing means, when displaying the tree structure, it takes a time axis in a direction perpendicular to the direction of arrangement of the task by the parent-child relationship, with respect to each task, the completion of task start The work process structure display device according to claim 1, wherein a frame having a length of up to is arranged at a position of a corresponding time to display the task history structure and the time at the same time. 3. A layer / tag switching processing unit for switching display of layers by selecting a tag corresponding to each layer generated by the layer / tag generation processing unit. Item 1. A work process structure display device according to item 1. 4. A structure in which each layer is three-dimensionally arranged with respect to the display data generated by the tree structure drawing processing means by shifting a certain distance in a direction orthogonal to a plane displaying the respective tree structure. The structure display of the work process according to claim 1, further comprising: three-dimensional task display drawing processing means for generating the display data representing a projection of a state in which the viewpoint is moved to an arbitrary position on a sphere surrounding the. apparatus. 5. A method for displaying a structure of a work process for displaying a structure between tasks in a workflow, wherein a layer / tag generation processing unit associates a task identifier as a tag with a layer and routes the layer. the layer value is initialized and searches for a record having an identifier from the task connection information layer separation processing unit represents a parent-child relationship between history of each task information of the tag associated with the layer task to the task identifier, a If the record is retrieved, said Les
When the ear tag generator is above with the identifier of the parent task of the records retrieved task identifier tag associated with the layer is 1 increases the root level value, a plurality of records is retrieved , Create a new layer according to the number of retrieved records, and create the layer tag
That the processing unit is increased by one root level value for each layer in the identifier of the parent task of the records retrieved task identifier tags associated with each of the layers, until the end of all the layers present repeating, when the record is not retrieved, the tree structure drawing processing unit
There structure display method of a work process, characterized in that to the task identifier of the tag associated with each layer to draw the tree structure whose root, and processing steps. 6. Step odor of drawing the tree structure
Then , the tree structure drawing processing unit takes a time axis in a direction orthogonal to the direction of task arrangement by parent-child relationship, and for each task, a frame having a length from task start to completion is placed at the corresponding time location. 6. The task history structure and the time are arranged at the same time so that the task history structure and the time are drawn at the same time.
How to display the structure of the described work process. 7. Step odor of drawing the tree structure
Then , the three-dimensional task display drawing processing unit shifts each layer three-dimensionally by shifting a certain distance in the direction orthogonal to the plane displaying each tree structure, and moves the viewpoint to an arbitrary position on the spherical surface surrounding the arranged structure. so as to draw the projection of the state
Structure display method of the work process according to claim 5, characterized in that the. 8. In a workflow support system on a distributed system connected by a network, between task history information storage means for storing the performance status and performance result of each task in a workflow as a history of task information, and a history of each task information. Task connection information storage means for storing the parent-child relationship of each as connection information, and when there are a plurality of parent tasks for a task based on the task information and task connection information, each parent is placed in a separate layer to establish a parent-child relationship. Layer decomposition processing means that decomposes a certain task into layers, layer tag generation processing means that generates a unique tag corresponding to each layer, and parent-child relationship of tasks is arranged in a tree structure for the tasks decomposed into layers The tree structure drawing processing means for generating the displayed data and the layer / tag generation processing means. Each made and Layer tag switching processing means for performing display switching layer by selecting the tag corresponding to each layer was, with respect to the display data generated by the tree structure drawing processing means, each layer A three-dimensional task that three-dimensionally arranges the tree structure by shifting it by a certain distance in the direction orthogonal to the plane in which it is displayed, and converts it into data that displays the projection with the viewpoint moved to an arbitrary position on the sphere surrounding the arranged structure. A workflow support system comprising: a display / drawing processing unit.