Patent ID: 8564803

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: plural processing units which execute plural processing functions that are different from each other; an execution-in-progress information acquiring unit which acquires execution-in-progress function information that is information about a first processing unit which is executing processing, of the plural processing units; a discrimination unit which discriminates a second processing unit that cannot execute processing when the first processing unit indicated by the execution-in-progress function information acquired by the execution-in-progress information acquiring unit is executing processing, from among the plural processing units; and an executability information generating unit which generates inexecutable function information that is information about the second processing unit, based on a result of determination by the discrimination unit; wherein the discrimination unit discriminates the second processing unit for each of the image forming apparatuses, using the execution-in-progress function information and non-executability correspondence information that associates a predetermined processing unit and a processing unit that cannot execute processing when the predetermined processing unit is executing processing; wherein the discrimination unit further discriminates, for each of the image forming apparatuses, a third processing unit that can execute processing when the first processing unit is executing processing, from among the plural processing units provided in each image forming apparatus, using the execution-in-progress function information and the non-executability correspondence information; the executability information generating unit further generates executable function information that is information about the third processing unit, for each image forming apparatus, based on the result of determination by the discrimination unit, the executability information collecting unit further collects the executable function information for each of the image forming apparatuses, and the list information generating unit generates the executability list information showing the plural image forming apparatuses, processing by the second processing unit in each of the image forming apparatuses, and processing by the third processing unit in each of the image forming apparatuses, in association with each other, using the inexecutable function information and the executable function information for each of the image forming apparatuses collected by the executability information collecting unit.