Patent ID: 6115646
Filing Date: 2000-09-05
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
A process automation system for controlling the execution of processes on a plurality of processing nodes each having processing agents associated therewith, the system comprising a G(generic process automation engine) and an ORB (object request broker) bus connected to the plurality of processing nodes, the Ghaving:a) a build time part for creating and storing at least one process definition identifying a logical sequence of work items, pre-conditions and post-conditions for the execution of work items, and propagation rules for propagating outputs of work items to inputs of other work items, and for creating and storing a request to create a process instance for a particular process definition;b) a run time part comprising process instance servers for coordinating the enactment of the work items forming part of the process definitions and a scheduler for scheduling each work item forming part of the process definition either for execution at a given time and by a particular processing agent on a particular one of the processing nodes or for execution by a human, the scheduler using constraint propagation logic;wherein the ORB is a CORBA bus, and the process instance servers are CORBA Process Servers that contain a set of process instance objects that control the execution of the work items forming part of the process definition for the relevant process instance.