"Ad hoc" in other words, 'not decided how and by whom it should be treated'. In terms of the Business Processes, for example it is an operation despite you know there exist three processes, in some cases these processes would be handled in order of [Process A] - [Process B] - [Process C], but in other cases [Process A] and [Process B] would be handled simultaneously after [Process C] has been processed. Originally meaning of the [ad hoc] is "non-repetitive" or "non-permanent".
Even though it may be a little confusing,,,
First of all, BPMN as 'notation of Business Process Diagram' has a mission to well-define 'a Business flow of repetitive and predefined'. But in the other hand, BPMS (BPM System) as a 'Business system', should manage all the business progress (whether repetitive or not). After all, it is very hard for BPMS how to handle 'a Business flow unlikely to pre-defined'.
In Questetra, it is devised to handle such ad hoc processes by 'ganging up'. That is, it is a concept that 'putting multiple Tasks together as one, and handling it with everybody'. Specifically, it is trying to solve it by providing a cooperative work by the following three functions. In fact, this is the point which attracts attention from IT research companies and IT society.
- [Team Task], which is available for multiple people to discuss. (Tasks on a Team Swimlane)
- Discussion type data (Special text type datya item which concerning people can continue to append the time-stamped comment)
- Enterprise Social Networking (Posts that tagged the Process ID will be associated with the Process)
[Investment Decisions flow]
[Investment Decisions flow: '2. Survey-Discuss-Report' screen]
In this workflow, "The Board of Investment" is a "team" consisting of five people.
Someone to "Survey", someone to "proceeding the meeting" Somebody to "summarize to report", but it does not mean that each charge has a fixed to anyone. Even though, if there is a proposal of investments, there is a mission on five people to conclude. In the reality, it will about to be decided who will summarize a report depending on the type of investments, however there is no clear regulation. In short, it is a business process to process ad hoc "Tasks" such as to examine, to open a meeting if necessary, to summarize the minutes, and to create a report.
The Task of [2. Survey-Discuss-Report] will be indicated in"My Task" of all five people (1), and always possible to append work progress to "Discussion type data" (2). Sometimes there will be a need for people other than five to survey or to participate in the discussion. In those cases, ask to the personnel for a comment in the "Enterprise Social Network" by a post tagged with the Process ID.
That is the mechanism of Questetra to record all the processing.
By the way, (although in enthusiastic speaking) this kind of story is discussed in the theme of so called 'Case File Management'. It can be said that it is a wise choice to cover the 'Case management' with collaboration tools like Enterprise Social Network, if the occurrence frequency is not so high.
[Download]
- Business Template: Investment Decisions flow
- Ad Hok Flow Without Procedure (2011-05-29)
- Mini-Blogging with General Review Workflow! (2011-04-09)
- When You Have Tasks That You Won't Know Who Should Own Until the Job Starts (2010-12-14)