Human tasks

An example of a human task

Let us begin with an example of a human task. This graphic illustrates the steps involved when a staff member accepts a task.

In this example, this particular task is likely part of a much larger process which stops and waits until the staff member makes a decision.

Assigning people to the task

When you create a human task an important step is to define which people can work on this task. You define who is eligible to perform the work using roles and people assignment criteria.

Roles

A role is a group of employees who share the same level of authority and access rights. When a task is assigned to a role, any staff member in that role group can complete the task.

People assignment criteria

These criteria define the members of each of the role groups.

You specify who can work on a task by assigning a role to the task and by ensuring that the membership of that role is set to the right group of people.

Presenting a task to a staff member

When a human task is started, the staff member interacts with the task through a user interface in a client environment.

If you take a look at the example again, you will see that you have already been exposed to a client, it just was not spelled out that way. Take a look at the example again with a few minor changes.

In this modified example, we see that all interaction between the user and the task is facilitated by a client. The task is delivered to the user through the client, and the resolution is returned in similar means.

So far, both examples have shown what happens when the task can be completed without a problem. What happens when that is not possible?

Escalations

An escalation is a course of action that is begun when an expected result from a task has not been achieved within a set period of time. For example, let us look at the same scenario again, and see what happens when it is not properly completed.

In this example, we see that the staff member who claims the task isn't able to complete it in the specified period of time, and another staff member is alerted. Presumably, this second employee has the authority to investigate the reasons behind why the task wasn't completed and proceed accordingly.

Collaborating with other staff members in a human task

Ad hoc tasks and transferred work items are created on-the-fly in the runtime environment, usually because the situation that has created the need for a task did not exist when the application was initially developed. You can create such tasks either from existing task definitions (collaboration and invocation tasks) or without any existing definition.

You can use IBM Integration Designer to create two types of ad hoc tasks: the subtask and the follow-on task. Definitions of these ad hoc tasks and transferred work items are given below.

Single and parallel ownership of human tasks

When you create a human task you can choose between single and parallel ownership. A parallel ownership task (or simply a parallel task) is one in which multiple people can work on a task at the same moment. Single ownership means that only one person can work on a task. The first potential owner to claim a task becomes solely responsible for that task.

You can use IBM Integration Designer to create single and parallel tasks, or to convert a task from one to the other. Definitions of these concepts are given below.