英文文献及翻译(计算机专业)

NET-BASED TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeffrey D. Ullman, Jennifer Wisdom

ABSTRACT

In net-based collaborative design environment, design resources become more and more varied and complex. Besides common information management systems, design resources can be organized in connection with design activities.

A set of activities and resources linked by logic relations can form a task. A task has at least one objective and can be broken down into smaller ones. So a design project can be separated into many subtasks forming a hierarchical structure.

Task Management System (TMS) is designed to break down these tasks and assign certain resources to its task nodes．As a result of decomposition.al1 design resources and activities could be managed via this system.

KEY WORDS：Collaborative Design, Task Management System (TMS), Task Decomposition, Information Management System

1 Introduction

Along with the rapid upgrade of request for advanced design methods, more and more design tool appeared to support new design methods and forms. Design in a web environment with multi-partners being involved requires a more powerful and efficient management system .Design partners can be located everywhere over the net with their own organizations. They could be mutually independent experts or teams of tens of employees. This article discusses a task management system (TMS) which manages design activities and resources by breaking down design objectives and re-organizing design resources in connection with the activities. Comparing with common

information management systems (IMS) like product data management system and document management system, TMS can manage the whole design process. It has two tiers which make it much more f1exible in structure.

The 1ower tier consists of traditional common IMSS and the upper one fulfills logic activity management through controlling a tree-like structure, allocating design resources and making decisions about how to carry out a design project. Its functioning paradigm varies in diffe rent projects depending on the project’s scale and purpose. As a result of this structure, TMS can separate its data model from its logic mode1.It could bring about structure optimization and efficiency improvement, especially in a large scale project.

2 Task Management in Net-Based Collaborative Design Environment

2.1 Evolution of the Design Environment

During a net-based collaborative design process, designers transform their working environment from a single PC desktop to LAN, and even extend to WAN. Each design partner can be a single expert or a combination of many teams of several subjects, even if they are far away from each other geographically. In the net-based collaborative design environment, people from every terminal of the net can exchange their information interactively with each other and send data to authorized roles via their design tools. The Co Design Space is such an environment which provides a set of these tools to help design partners communicate and obtain design information. Code sign Space aims at improving the efficiency of collaborative work, making enterprises increase its sensitivity to markets and optimize the configuration of resource.

2.2 Management of Resources and Activities in Net-Based Collaborative Environment

The expansion of design environment also caused a new problem of how to organize the resources and design activities in that environment. As the number of design partners increases, resources also increase in direct proportion. But relations between resources increase in square ratio. To organize these resources and their