Method and system for determining states of tasks based on activities associated with the tasks over a predetermined period of time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11501223-B2
Application number	US-202117546817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2021
Priority date	Aug 16, 2017
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

For a given user, a task database system associated with the user is queried to identify a list of tasks associated with the user. For each of the tasks, an email system associated with the user is queried to obtain one or more emails and calendar events associated with the task. An IM system associated with the user is queried to obtain IM messages of an IM channel of which the user is a member. The IM channel has been specifically created to exchange messages concerning the task amongst the members of the IM channel. The task is then determined whether it satisfies a predetermined state (e.g., inactive, lack of future meetings) in view of emails, calendar events, and IM messages associated with the task based on a set of rules. If the task is determined to satisfy the predetermined state, a notification message is transmitted to a preconfigured destination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of generating alerts based on conditions of tasks in a database system, the computer-implemented method comprising:
querying, at a server via a first application programming interface (API), a task database system associated with a user identifier (ID) identifying a user to retrieve task data of a list of one or more tasks associated with the user ID;
for each of the tasks associated with the user ID,
determining a plurality of information sources associated with the user ID, including an email server and an instant messaging (IM) server,
retrieving, from a user database, login credentials for each of the plurality of information sources based on the user ID,
for each of the plurality of information sources, logging into the information source using the retrieved login credentials to retrieve activity data from the information source, including
querying the email server associated with the user ID via a second API to obtain email and calendar activities that include one or more emails and one or more calendar events associated with the task,
querying the IM server associated with the user ID via a third API to identify IM channel information that identifies one or more IM channels, each IM channel associated with the user ID that identifies the user as a member of the IM channel,
identifying an IM channel from the one or more IM channels, wherein the identified IM channel was created to exchange messages concerning the task amongst members of the identified IM channel, and
obtaining IM messages from the identified IM channel, each IM message posted during a first predetermined period of time in past;

determining based on a set of rules whether the task satisfies a predetermined condition in view of the task data, the activity data, and the IM channel information, the predetermined condition representing risk of failure to complete, wherein determining that the task satisfies the predetermined condition includes at least one of following:
determining whether there was a meeting associated with the task conducted in a second predetermined period of time in the past based on timestamps of the one or more calendar events,
determining whether a number of days since a last meeting of the task was conducted is greater than a first predetermined threshold based on the timestamps of the one or more calendar events, or
determining that the task lacks future meetings, when there was a meeting associated with the task conducted in the second predetermined period of time and the number of days since the last meeting of the task was conducted is greater than the first predetermined threshold; and

in response to determining that the task satisfies the predetermined condition, generating a message indicating the task satisfies the predetermined condition;

classifying the tasks into a plurality of groups based on the predetermined conditions that the tasks satisfy, each group associated with one of the predetermined conditions;
generating a notification message for each of the plurality of groups, the notification message describing the predetermined condition associated with the group; and
transmitting the notification message for each group to a predetermined destination over a network.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the task satisfies a predetermined condition in view of the task data, the activity data, and the 1 M channel comprises:
determining whether a number of days since last time the task was updated is greater than the first predetermined threshold based on the task data; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as inactive, when the number of days since last time the task was updated is greater than the first predetermined threshold.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the task satisfies a predetermined condition in view of the task data, the activity data, and the IM channel comprises:
determining whether a number of days since a last message was posted in an IM channel associated with the task is greater than a second predetermined threshold based on timestamps of the IM messages; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as inactive, when the number of days since the last message was posted in an IM channel associated with the task is greater than the second predetermined threshold.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising determining whether the IM channel associated with the task includes a member other than an owner of the task, wherein the task is categorized as inactive when the IM channel includes a member other than an owner of the task.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the task expects to be completed within a third predetermined period of time based on the task data; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as inactive, when the task expects to be completed within the third predetermined period of time.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether a number of days since last time the task satisfied the predetermined condition is greater than a fourth predetermined threshold; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as inactive, when the number of days since last time the task satisfied the predetermined condition is greater than the fourth predetermined threshold.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether there is a meeting that has been scheduled in a fifth predetermined period of time; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as lack of future meetings, when there is no meeting scheduled in the fifth predetermined period of time.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether a number of days since last time the task satisfied the predetermined condition is greater than a sixth predetermined threshold; and
indicating that the task satisfies the predetermined condition as lack of future meetings, when the number of days since last time the task satisfied the predetermined condition is greater than the sixth predetermined threshold.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the user database includes a plurality of user entries, each entry mapping a particular user ID to a set of login credentials for accessing a set of information sources associated with that particular user ID.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more emails are identified based on an email address associated with a sender or a recipient of the one or more emails and one or more keywords in a subject field of each of the one or more emails.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the task is determined to be associated with the user when the task includes one IM channel with the user as a member.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein querying a task database system associated with a user ID comprises selecting a task to be relevant to the user when the user is an owner of the task.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the task data of the list of one or more tasks associated with the user comprises selecting a task to be relevant to the user when the user is a member of an instant messaging (IM) channel associated with the task and the user is active.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the second predetermined period of ti

Assignees

• Clari Inc

Inventors

• Ponnusamy Rajkumar
• Bao David

Classifications

• G06Q10/06313

  Resource planning in a project environment · CPC title

• G06F16/335

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles (filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536) · CPC title

• G06Q10/063114 Primary

  Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group · CPC title

• G06F9/4881

  Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues · CPC title

• G06F9/546

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title