Task Assistant (TA)

Task Assistant (TA) is a collaborative task management application that gives users the capability to author, edit, retrieve, share, and monitor task lists within a team. In this way, Task Assistant makes checklists or standard operating procedures into live, dynamic entities that can evolve and adapt over time.

Overview

Task Assistant is a flexible, web-based workflow application that enables an organization to move its operating procedures from manuals and human memories into living collaborative artifacts. Task Assistant assists its user to quickly create workflows, to access and customize workflows created by others, and to connect tasks to both team members and automated processes in the user’s environment. Task Assistant is fully collaborative, enabling multiple users to simultaneously edit, build, or execute workflows.

TaskAssistant

Tasks are organized in hierarchical structures called tasklists. For example, the figure above shows a tasklist with several levels of subtasks.

Entering tasks is as simple as entering bullet points in PowerPoint. Setting deadlines, adding comments, or attaching files and web links is equally simple. Beyond allowing simple entry of new task information, Task Assistant analyzes each new task, using algorithms and learned models to make connections between tasks and the following: (1) existing workflows in a globally shared library. Matching workflows are presented to the user as suggestions for potentially relevant workflows in the current context; (2) other potential candidates to perform the task. Over time, Task Assistant learns which members of a team perform which tasks; and (3) relevant web services or automated procedures in a shared library. Task Assistant integrates with other systems that publish automated services. When such procedures are attached to tasks within a workflow, executing the tasklist can be more efficient.

Task Assistant has significant support for status monitoring. It displays progress, due dates, and indications of when tasks are not on track or when information is stale.

A defining quality of Task Assistant is its flexibility: it supports workflows as simple as a personal list of to-do items up to a hardened, reusable, and collaborative workflow with deadlines, durations, and links to files, web links, and automated services. This flexibility enables Task Assistant to support many planning, execution, training, and process monitoring functions.

Prerequisites

  • Java 1.5 or above.
  • Supports browser version IE 7.0 and above; FireFox 3.6 and above

Limitations

  • This version of Task Assistant does not support execution dependency by linking tasks
  • File attachment size is limited to 16 MB