Workflow

About: Workflow is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 31996 publications have been published within this topic receiving 498339 citations.

Managing heterogeneous multi-system tasks to support enterprise-wide operations

Abstract: The computing environment in most medium-sized and large enterprises involves old main-frame based (legacy) applications and systems as well as new workstation-based distributed computing systems The objective of the METEOR project is to support multi-system workflow applications that automate enterprise operations This paper deals with the modeling and specification of workflows in such applications Tasks in our heterogeneous environment can be submitted through different types of interfaces on different processing entities We first present a computational model for workflows that captures the behavior of both transactional and non-transactional tasks of different types We then develop two languages for specifying a workflow at different levels of abstraction: the Workflow Specification Language (WFSL) is a declarative rule-based language used to express the application-level interactions between multiple tasks, while the Task Specification Language (TSL) focuses on the issues related to individual tasks These languages are designed to address the important issues of inter-task dependencies, data formatting, data exchange, error handling, and recovery The paper also presents an architecture for the workflow management system that supports the model and the languages

Freeflow: mediating between representation and action in workflow systems

Abstract: In order to understand some problems associated with workflow, we set out an analysis of workflow systems, identifying a number of basic issues in the underlying technology. This points to the conflation of temporal and dependency information as the source of a number of these problems. We describe Freeflow, a prototype which addresses these problems using a variety of technical innovations, including a rich constraint-based process modelling formalism, and the use of declarative dependency relationships. Its focus is on mediation between process “and action, rather than the enactment of a process. We outline the system and its design principles, and illustrate the features of our approach with examples from ongoing work.

System and method for managing the workflow for processing service orders among a variety of organizations within a telecommunications company

Abstract: A system and method for managing the workflow for processing Service Orders among a variety of organizations within a telecommunications company. The system and method coordinates all of the tasks and activities related to order processing among the various entities within the telecommunications company. Workflows are used to model business procedures used for processing Service Orders. Each workflow comprises a plurality of workflow steps. Business process models are depicted as workflow diagrams. Upon receipt of a Service Order, an appropriate Work Plan is selected based on information within the Service Order. Each workflow step is assigned a Resource and is scheduled for completion. The Workflow steps are then placed in In-boxes associated with the selected Resource. Once the processing steps have been scheduled, a current work step is calculated. Notification messages are sent to the appropriate systems to notify them to begin activity associated with the current work step. The system is automatically notified when the current work step is complete, so that the next work step can be processed in a similar fashion. Detailed statistical information is maintained for audit and reporting purposes. Users log-on to remote workstations coupled with a company-wide Intranet or the like. From the remote workstations, users from various organizations view their In-boxes and other detailed information about Service Orders according to selectable requests. Workflow steps can be transferred and re-assigned using the remote workstations. Detailed statistical information is maintained for audit and reporting purposes. Reports reflecting the effectiveness of workforce management and work administration is obtained.

A Compromised-Time-Cost Scheduling Algorithm in SwinDeW-C for Instance-Intensive Cost-Constrained Workflows on a Cloud Computing Platform

Abstract: The concept of cloud computing continues to spread widely, as it has been accepted recently. Cloud computing has many unique advantages which can be utilized to facilitate workflow execution. Instance-intensive cost-constrained cloud workflows are workflows with a large number of workflow instances (i.e. instance intensive) bounded by a certain budget for execution (i.e. cost constrained) on a cloud computing platform (i.e. cloud workflows). However, there are, so far, no dedicated scheduling algorithms for instance-intensive cost-constrained cloud workflows. This paper presents a novel compromised-time-cost scheduling algorithm which considers the characteristics of cloud computing to accommodate instance-intensive cost-constrained workflows by compromising execution time and cost with user input enabled on the fly. The simulation performed demonstrates that the algorithm can cut down the mean execution cost by over 15% whilst meeting the user-designated deadline or shorten the mean execution time by over 20% within the user-designated execution cost.

The psycho Package: an Efficient and Publishing-Oriented Workflow for Psychological Science

Abstract: Statistics are a vital aspect of psychological science. Unfortunately, the process of analyzing, formatting and reporting results is often fastidious, time-consuming and prone to errors, resulting in frustration and aversion. On top of that, many available tools for professionals and students are either overpriced, too complex (i.e., displaying vast amounts of raw information neither demanded nor needed by the user) or too basic (i.e., not supporting advanced statistical procedures). These factors contribute to the reproducibility crisis in psychological science (Chambers et al. 2014, Etz and Vandekerckhove (2016), Szucs and Ioannidis (2016)).