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Abstract

A novel software method of creating and maintaining a schedule of the activities to be performed by agents on behalf of a principal entity at least includes: a) creating a principal profile; b) identifying the principal's agents; c) defining jobs to be performed by the principal's agents, the jobs being at least partially defined by identifiable skills needed to perform the jobs; d) defining a scheduling period; e) defining job shifts related to the temporal performance of the jobs during a scheduling period; f) defining job criteria for matching particular agents to particular jobs; g) identifying the availability of the principal's agents for job shift performance; h) generating a job shift schedule based on elements b)-g); i) automatically modifying the job shift schedule according to predefined rules and interpreted rules postulated by software according to previous scheduling and scheduling approval iterations; j) determining a fitness value of a generated or modified schedule, based on adherence to predefined or interpreted rules; k) repeating elements i) and j) until no improvement in the fitness value is realized; l) via a principal's manager-agent, approving a job shift schedule; and m) publishing an approved job shift schedule for availability to the principal's agents and manager-agents. The method is hosted via the Internet, using an application service provider model.

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