Patent ID: 7624033

Claim:
A computer-implemented process of managing status changes to a work order for management reporting, and auditing activities of work order performance in a telephone facility network, the process comprising: configuring, in a computer memory, a table of local user defined event handling rules including status change event rules wherein each status change event rule indicates one or more actions to be performed on a work order for at least one status transition resulting from a change-in-status in the performance of a work order; acquiring, from a communications network, a telephone line record from at least one of i) results from a mechanized loop test, ii) results from an automated local loop test system, iii) information from a digital subscriber line communication system, iv) information from a fiber optic communication system, and v) information from an Integrated Services Digital Network communication system, the telephone line record comprising at least one of i) customer information from a Customer Record Information System, ii) facility information from a Loop Facility Assignment Control System, and iii) equipment information from a switch system; creating a work order using information from the acquired telephone line record and assigning the work order an initial status; receiving, from a communications network, work order change-in-status information wherein said change-in-status information includes a work order identifier, a status code, and a generating identifier; annotating the change-in-status information with a date and a time reflecting the local time zone of a telephone system wire center where the work order is locally managed; validating that the annotated date and the time are chronologically after a previous change in status to the work order; updating the work order with the change in status; and archiving each change in status to the work order as the work order progresses from creation to closure; filtering the table of event handling rules for the work order change-in-status information for an event criteria, the event criteria specifying a status transition matching one or more event handling rules, wherein the work order is automatically updated according to the corresponding actions of the one or more event handling rules, wherein at least one of the one or more event handling rules includes a corresponding action to set the status of the work order to a specified status code based on the change-in-status information and corresponding action of the event handling rules; and providing a notification, via a communications network, of the transition to the specified status based on the change-in-status information; wherein each transition in status in the life of the work order is tracked and logged for management, reporting, and auditing activities.