# US 2014/0156336 A1 · Specifying flexible business processes using pre and post conditions > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0156336 A1 - Document ID: US20140156336A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/895,061 - Filed: 2013-05-15 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-05-16 - Assignees: Be Informed B.V. - Applicants: Be Informed B.V. - Inventors: Jeroen Christiaan Van Grondelle; Gartjan Grijzen - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156336A1 ## CPC - G06Q 10/06316: {Sequencing of tasks or work} - G06Q 10/0633: Workflow analysis - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract A system for supporting a business process, which process is modeled as a set of activities relating to an end goal, each activity having zero or more preconditions and one or more postconditions, the system comprising an inference engine for inferring one or more desired activities whose preconditions are true and which have respective postconditions that must be true in order for the end goal to be reached, an activity execution module for executing each of the activities, a control module for repeatedly (a) causing the inference engine to infer one or more particular desired activities, and (b) causing the activity execution module to execute the particular inferred desired activities, until the end goal has been reached, and a user override module for allowing at any time a user to cause the activity execution module to execute any activity whose preconditions are true, to render one precondition or postcondition true, to declare one precondition or postcondition true and to declare a given precondition inapplicable to a given activity. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for supporting a business process, which process is modeled as a set of activities relating to an end goal, each activity having zero or more preconditions and one or more postconditions, the system comprising: an inference engine for inferring one or more desired activities whose preconditions are true and which have respective postconditions that must be true in order for the end goal to be reached, an activity execution module for executing each of the activities, a control module for repeatedly (a) causing the inference engine to infer one or more particular desired activities, and (b) causing the activity execution module to execute the particular inferred desired activities, until the end goal has been reached, and a user override module for allowing at any time a user to cause the activity execution module to execute any activity whose preconditions are true, to render one precondition or postcondition true, to declare one precondition or postcondition true and to declare a given precondition inapplicable to a given activity. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, in which the inference engine is configured for inferring plural desired activities that all have postconditions that must be true in order for the end goal to be reachable and the control module is configured for causing the activity execution module to execute one or more of the plural inferred desired activities. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, in which the activity execution module comprises an activity selection module for presenting the plural inferred desired activities to the user, for receiving a selection of one or more of the plural inferred desired activities and for causing the activity execution module to execute the selected one or more of the plural inferred desired activities. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, in which the activity execution module comprises an activity selection module for determining for each of the plural inferred desired activities if user interaction is needed, and for making a selection of an activity that requires no user interaction if at least one such activity is part of the plural inferred desired activities. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, in which each activity has an associated preference indicator and the activity execution module comprises an activity selection module for selecting one of the plural inferred desired activities that has the relatively highest preference indicator. ### Claim 6 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2, comprising an activity selection module for selecting a subset of the plural activities, which subset consists of activities requiring user interaction, and for causing the activity execution module to execute the activities of the subset together. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, in which the user override module is configured for, in case the inference engine infers that no desired activity exists whose preconditions are true, forcing the user to render or declare one precondition or postcondition true or to declare one precondition inapplicable to a given activity. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, in which preconditions and/or postconditions have associated temporal validity information, and the inference engine is configured to infer the plural desired activities further based on the temporal validity and a current time. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, further comprising a state manager for managing a global state of the business process in terms of preconditions and postconditions that are true, the control module being configured for causing the state manager to update the global state based on the one or more postconditions of the executed inferred desired activity, after the activity execution module has executed the particular inferred desired activity, and the user override module being configured for allowing at any time the user to declare one precondition or postcondition as true in the global state, to render one precondition or postcondition as true in the global state and to declare one precondition inapplicable to a given activity within the global state. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable code for causing a computer to operate as the system of claim 1.