Patent ID: 6850895

Claim:
A method in a computing system for assigning resources to tasks in a rule-based, resource constrained system, the method comprising: under control of the computing system, receiving indications of multiple tasks, each task being of one of multiple task types and having multiple task attributes that specify constraints on which resources are able to perform the task; receiving indications of multiple resources each having multiple resource attributes, the resource attributes of a resource describing aspects of the resource that affect ability of the resource to perform tasks; receiving indications of multiple distinct assignment rules that are each associated with one of the task types, each assignment rule able to individually assess whether a resource is capable of performing a task of the associated task type; and using the assignment rules to assign resources to tasks by, for each of the tasks, selecting one or more of the assignment rules that are associated with the task type to which the task belongs; and using the selected assignment rules to assess whether resources are capable of performing the task based upon the resource attributes of the resources and the task attributes of the task, the assessing by determining for each of one or more resources whether the resource attributes of the resource indicate that the resource satisfies the constraints of the task attributes for that task.