Process control in ICS manager nG

Introduction

As part of its global Spectrum Management offering, ATDI offers via its software ICS manager nG, the ability to customize and manage the various work flows and tasks related to spectrum management. This type of custom work flow management interface is known as a process control. Before continuing, let us define the term process control more precisely within the context of ICS manager nG: A process control allows the management of a series of individual work tasks defined by the customer (a spectrum regulator). When combined, the separate work tasks can constitute a more generalized and common process such as managing a frequency solicitation, billing management, etc.

These work tasks correspond to the various stages or states of the life cycle of a given entity (license, invoice, equipment authorization, etc.). The process control is then characterized by a control of the various states of an entity during a given work flow. For each state, various actions can be performed / considered. An action can in particular make it possible to pass from one state to another thus specifying a possible transition between two states. In addition, each action can be restricted to only being able to be accomplished by a certain group of people (legal department, financial department, engineering department...).

These groups of people become part of the stake holders for a given process control. So, a process control can be simple or quite complex. The level of complexity of a process control very much depends on the level of involvement of various stakeholders from various departments in an administration and when and where during the life cycle of a work flow their input is needed. In accordance with the previous description, ICS manager nG offers various additional tables and features in its native interface to allow a spectrum administration implement a given work flow step-by-step as a series of software tasks.

At the same time, additional tables or features may need to be implemented to meet the varying needs of spectrum regulators and these needs are typically provided through ICS manager’s Application Programming Interface. The development of these additional features, that may or may not be tied into a process control, is typically performed by ATDI and delivered as a customer specific plug-in. This document, however, will briefly describe how to create and manage a process control in the native ICS manager nG interface using the previously mentioned additional tables.

Definition of the members of a taskforce

Configuring a process control in ICS manager nG begins with the creation of the taskforce members. The taskforce members are the various stakeholders in a given work flow. They have an involvement in pushing an entity, whether it is a license, invoice, equipment authorization, etc., from one state to the next.

The customer can define a taskforce and the members of a task force as they want; for example:

• Law enforcement taskforce (Alfredo)
• Engineering taskforce (Bill, Charlie)
• Administrative taskforce (Eva, Karl, Alfredo)

Figure 1: Taskforce definition

The ‘Taskforce’ query lists all taskforces entered by the customer; The ‘Taskforce users’ query lists all relations between database users and taskforces. Only the users designated in these taskforces will be able to carry out the tasks associated to the various actions of a given process control.

Process controls - further definition

In ICS manager nG, the process control is a feature that can be configured by the user. Process controls can be configured for various existing tables in the ICS manager database structure such as: licenses, microwaves, complaints, etc. As the customer proceeds to define a process control, they must make sure that the process being implemented resembles the work flow they need to perform and that the actions assigned to the various task force members are assigned in an appropriate manner.

In order to accomplish these implementation objectives, a process control can be implemented in two different ways in ICS manager nG:

• Implementation as a sequence of state transitions – no programming required
• Implementation as a set of specifically developed custom programs (delivered as a plug-in(s) – much more powerful but requires extensive programming

The main difference between these two types of implementation is the treatment of the transitions between the states.

Implementation as a sequence of state transitions

For this implementation, the user does not need to create a sub program, the procedure for transitioning from one state to another in a given process control will be performed manually by the user.

Initially, the user will define all the states for the process control, so that the process control recording feature will be able to associate with the requisite tables needed to be involved during the execution of a process control. Then, the user will describe the various possible transitions between each state, and the tasks which must be carried out in order to pass from one state to another in the process control.

Figure 2: Definition of states for the recording of a process control for a license authorization

The definition of the transitions from each state in a work flow completes the definition of the process control.

Implementation as a set of programs

In the following example, the recording of a series of state transitions was replaced with LISP code, which allows this implementation to be more powerful and allow for a more automated / user-friendly process control.

In this kind of implementation, various programs may need to be developed that will describe the various actions that the process control will carry out as well as how the transition from one state to another in a process control is defined. These various coded sequences may be gathered as a external routine and be called by the native ICS manager interface at various stages / entry points. Below is an example of a custom developed process control written in LISP code. The ICS manager API can support C++, C# language in addition to others.

Figure 3: Example of a custom developed process control

Throughout the execution of a process control, the state of a record in the ICS manager database may be modified several times.

User interface

Before implementing their process control, the user will choose which tables in the ICS manager database will be involved in the process control. When a new record is created in any of those tables, the interface of ICS manager can include a list of the various possible states that record can transition towards.

Figure 4: Initial states for a new record in the LICENCE table of ICS manager that is tied to a process control that involves license authorization

After the tasks or actions associated to a given state are preformed, then the user can return to the same entry point in the ICS manager interface (through a drop down menu or pop up) and be presented with a different series of states that particular record or group of records (in the case of batch processes) can be transitioned towards, thus continue the work flow process. The list of possible states depends on the state transitions which were defined in the implementation of the process control.

Figure 5: Example of change of states a record can transition to in a given process control

When there are no more possible transitions, the user would consider that the work flow process is finished.Once the process is completed, the user has the option of accessing a history of all the actions that were performed for a given process control.

Figure 6: Process Control history

A table called REC_HISTORY dedicated to recording the actions of a process control is included in the native ICS manager database structure. This table can record the state transitions of any record of any of the tables in the ICS manager database that happen to be associated to a given process control. This historical archiving feature for the actions in a process control can include comments and date and time stamp.

Management of the statistics tasks

Within the framework of the management of the process controls, ICS manager nG makes it possible to the user to carry out statistics (by operator, type of process, bandages...) for:

• Current processes
• Completed processes
• Current tasks
• Completed tasks

For example, the user can determine from the current tasks:

• Delay for holding?: How long it took before the appropriate taskforce member performed the necessary action to transition a record or group of records from one state to another: (=Date holding – Date creation)
• Delay for realization/completion? (= Date completion – Date holding)
• Delay for processing? (= Completion date – Creation date)

The user can also gather other statistics from the REC_HISTORY table such as:

• Number of tasks to be performed by each taskforce
• The average delay between task creation and task completion
• The average completion time of a given task
• Number of tasks completed during a year…

Management of incomplete tasks

The user can configure a predefined query of all the incomplete tasks (completion date is NULL) associated to any of the tables of ICS manager. This allows the user to select a task from a list.

Figure 7: Incomplete tasks