Showing papers on "Workflow technology published in 1997"

System and method for performing flexible workflow process compensation in a distributed workflow management system

Abstract: A system and method for performing flexible workflow process execution in a distributed workflow management system is described. The distributed workflow management system is formed by a computer network comprising a plurality of computers. Each computer has a processor, memory and input/output facilities. A workflow process management system operates on one or more of the computers to control the computer network in executing the workflow process. The workflow process includes at least one sequence of multiple actions. A plurality of resources is coupled to respective ones of the computers to carry out the multiple actions. A plurality of state machines are stored as computer-operable code in at least one memory and include a plurality of states interconnected by arcs logically forming a directed graph. The workflow management system further includes logic for instantiating each action with one state and logic for executing the logical sequence of the action as state transitions in each state machine.

Mechanism for heterogeneous, peer-to-peer, and disconnected workflow operation

Abstract: A mechanism for heterogeneous, peer-to-peer, and disconnected workflow execution across a network infrastructure. Performer Agent entities provide a homogeneous view of humans, applications, and heterogeneous workflow systems and components that act as Performers on the network by executing Tasks. Source Agent entities provide a homogeneous view of heterogeneous service requesters such as workflow scripts executing on different workflow systems, which generate Activities that need to execute on Performers as Tasks. Task Request and Task Response messages are used to standardize the communication between Source Agents and Performer Agents, along with other messages for controlling and queuing Tasks. Workflow systems interact with each other as peers using this mechanism by sending workflow execution requests, workflow script templates, and workflow execution environments to each other. Disconnected operation is handled by ensuring the continuous availability of Source Agents and Performer Agents on the network and providing a mechanism for Sources to disconnect from Source Agents and Performers to disconnect from Performer Agents.

Workflow-based applications

Abstract: A significant number of companies are reengineering their business to be more effective and productive. Consequently, existing applications must be modified, and new applications must be written. The new applications typically run in a distributed and heterogeneous environment, performing single tasks in parallel, and demanding special transaction functionality for the supporting environments. Workflow-based applications offer this type of capability. In this paper, their principal advantages are derived and set in context to transaction, object, and CASE (computer-assisted software engineering) technology. In particular, a method is proposed to develop these workflow-based applications in a cohesive and consistent way.

Functionality and Limitations of Current Workflow Management Systems.

Abstract: Work ow systems hold the promise of facilitating the everyday operation of many enterprises and work environments. As a result, many commercial work ow management systems have been developed. These systems, although useful, do not scale well, have limited fault-tolerance, and are in exible in terms of interoperating with other work ow systems. In this paper, we discuss the limitations of contemporary work ow management systems, and then elaborate on various directions for research and potential future extensions to the design and modeling of work ow management systems.

A Formal Foundation for Distributed Workflow Execution Based on State Charts

Abstract: This paper provides a formal foundation for distributed workflow executions. The state chart formalism is adapted to the needs of a workflow model in order to establish a basis for both correctness reasoning and run-time support for complex and large-scale workflow applications. To allow for the distributed execution of a workflow across different workflow servers, which is required for scalability and organizational decentralization, a method for the partitioning of workflow specifications is developed. It is proven that the partitioning preserves the original state chart's behavior.

Workflow Handbook 1997

Abstract: THE WORLD OF WORKFLOW. Introducing Workflow. The Business Impact of Workflow. Applications of Workflow. Implementing Workflow. The Future of Workflow. WORKFLOW STANDARDS. The Workflow Reference Model. WAPI Specification the Workflow Client Application Programming Interface. WAPI Naming Conventions. The WfMC Glossary. THE DIRECTORY. WfMC Structure and Membership Details. Workflow Management Coalition Member Directory. Appendices. Further Reading and Sources of Information. Indexes.

Workflow and Process Automation: Concepts and Technology

Abstract: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Process Technology. 3. Workflow Technology. 4. Transactional Aspects of Workflows. 5. Ongoing Research in Workflow and Process Automation. 6. State of the Industry. References. Index.

WIDE-a distributed architecture for workflow management

Abstract: This paper presents the distributed architecture of the WIDE workflow management system. We show how distribution and scalability are obtained by the use of a distributed object model, a client/server architecture, and a distributed workflow server architecture. Specific attention is paid to the extended transaction support and active rule support subarchitectures.

A framework for dynamic changes in workflow management systems

Abstract: Current workflow management systems (WFMSs) are only applicable in a reliable and secure manner if the business process (BP) to be supported is well structured. As ad hoc deviations from preplanned BPs are rather the norm and form a key part of process flexibility, this limits the applicability of today's workflow (WF) technology significantly. We present a framework for the support of ad hoc structural changes of WFs. Basic to our approach is a conceptual, graph based WF model which has a formal foundation in its syntax and operational semantics. Based upon this model, we have developed a complete and minimal set of change operations which support users in modifying the structure of WFs at runtime, while preserving their correctness and consistency.

Method and apparatus for utilizing a standard transaction format to provide application platform and a medium independent representation and transfer of data for the management of business process and their workflows

Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus which is used to enable application developers to generate workflow enabled applications which request services from the workflow server component of the workflow system, remotely and indirectly using messaging, shared databases or inter-process communications. The present invention provides a standard transaction format (STF) for accessing such a workflow system through STF processors via messaging, updates to the shared databases or inter-process communications. Workflow enabled applications are used by users to act and participate in business processes and enable users and managers to observe and query the status of workflows and business processes.

Transactions in Transactional Workflows

Abstract: Workflow management systems (WFMSs) are finding wide applicability in small and large organizational settings. Advanced transaction models (ATMs) focus on maintaining data consistency and have provided solutions to many problems such as correctness, consistency, and reliability in transaction processing and database management environments. While such concepts have yet to be solved in the domain of workflow systems, database researchers have proposed to use, or attempted to use ATMs to model workflows. In this paper we survey the work done in the area of transactional workflow systems. We then argue that workflow requirements in large-scale enterprise-wide applications involving heterogeneous and distributed environments either differ or exceed the modeling and functionality support provided by ATMs. We propose that an ATM is unlikely to provide the primary basis for modeling of workflow applications, and subsequently workflow management. We discuss a framework for error handling and recovery in the METEOR2 WFMS that borrows from relevant work in ATMs, distributed systems, software engineering, and organizational sciences. We have also presented various connotations of transactions in real-world organizational processes today. Finally, we point out the need for looking beyond ATMs and using a multi-disciplinary approach for modeling large-scale workflow applications of the future.

A flexible model supporting the specification and enforcement of role-based authorization in workflow management systems

Abstract: In recent years, workflow management systems (WFMSs) have gained popularity both in research as well as in commercial sectors. WFMSs are used to coordinate and streamline business processes of an organization. Often, very large WFMSs are used in organizations with users in the range of several thousands and number of process instances in the range of tens of thousands. To simplify the complexity of security administration, it is a common practice in many business organizations to allocate a role to perform each activity in the process and then assign one or more users to each role, and granting an authorization to roles rather than to users. Typically the security policies of the organization are expressed as constraints on users and roles. a well-known constraint is separation of duties. Unfortunately, current role-based access control models are not adequate to model such constraints. To address this issue, in this paper, (1) we present a language to express authorization constraints as clauses in a logic program, (2) provide formal notions of constraint consistency, and (3) propose algorithms to check for the consistency of the constraints and to assign roles and users to the workflow tasks in such a way that no constraints are violated.

The Chautauqua workflow system

Abstract: Chautauqua is an exploratory workflow management system designed and implemented within the Collaboration Technology Research group (CTRG) at the University of Colorado. This system represents a tightly knit merger of workflow technology and groupware technology. Chautauqua has been in test usage at the University of Colorado since 1995. The article discusses Chautauqua-its motivation, its design, and its implementation. The emphasis is on its novel features, and the techniques for implementing these features.

Knowledge-based techniques to increase the flexibility of workflow management

Abstract: This paper describes how knowledge-based techniques can be used to overcome problems of workflow management in engineering applications. Using explicit process and product models as a basis for a workflow interpreter allows us to alternate planning and execution steps, resulting in an increased flexibility of project coordination and enactment. To gain the full advantages of this flexibility, change processes have to be supported by the system. These require an improved traceability of decisions and have to be based on dependency management and change notification mechanisms. Our methods and techniques are illustrated by two applications: Urban land-use planning and software process modeling.

Ad-hoc workflow: problems and solutions

Abstract: The paper introduces ad hoc workflow, adding flexibility to traditional workflow. A problem that stems from the added flexibility is the need to support end users in the selection and modification of the process for a specific case. We propose a class of Petri nets to describe workflow processes, featuring safeness and guaranteed termination. A set of transformation rules with sufficient power for this class is given that can be implemented in a graphical editor. A second problem is monitoring the work being done. The solution is to approximate the states of the cases being treated by the states of a few standard cases.

A distributed execution environment for large-scale workflow management systems with subnets and server migration

Abstract: If the number of users within a workflow management system (WFMS) increases, a central workflow server (WF-server) and a single local area network (LAN) may become overloaded. The approach presented in the paper describes an execution environment which is able to manage a growing number of users by adding new servers and subnets. The basic idea is to decompose processes into parts which are controlled by different WF-servers. That is, during the execution of a workflow instance its execution (step) control may migrate from one WF-server to another. By selecting the appropriate physical servers (for hosting the WF-servers) in the appropriate LANs, communication costs and individual WF-server workload can be reduced significantly.

RainMan: a workflow system for the internet

Abstract: As individuals and enterprises get interconnected via global networks, workflows that scale beyond traditional organizational boundaries and execute seamlessly across these networks will become relevant. We address the problem of designing a scalable workflow infrastructure for the Internet that supports both flexibility in workflow participation and interoperability between heterogeneous workflow system components. RainMan is a distributed workflow system developed in Java that lives naturally on the Internet. RainMan is a loosely-coupled collection of independent services that cooperate with each other rather than a monolithic system. Some of the useful features of RainMan are browser-based workflow specification, participation, and management, and dynamic workflow modification. The RainMan system is based on RainMaker, our generic workflow framework that defines a core set of well-defined interfaces for workflow components.

Dynamic workflow management: a framework for modeling workflows

Abstract: Current workflow management systems do not provide adequate support for workflow modeling. Real life work processes are much richer in variations and more dynamic than is expressed in a typical workflow model. Users need to be able to adjust workloads and modify workflow models on-the-fly. In addition, data about workflow executions are analyzed with process analysis/simulation tools to evaluate design alternatives, so workflow models and data must be structured to reflect the questions that managers and designers are likely to ask. The authors present dynamic workflow management (DWM), a framework for modeling workflows that aims to satisfy these requirements. DWM provides high level packaged task templates for composing task sequences, a MOP-like structure based on dynamic memory theory to organize the task sequences into flexible workflow models, and four perspectives into a workflow model geared toward different users' interests. They illustrate these features of DWM with a case study of an interlibrary loan process and discuss its application in workflow enactment and simulation.

A patient workflow management system built on guidelines.

Abstract: To provide high quality, shared, and distributed medical care, clinical and organizational issues need to be integrated. This work describes a methodology for developing a Patient Workflow Management System, based on a detailed model of both the medical work process and the organizational structure. We assume that the medical work process is represented through clinical practice guidelines, and that an ontological description of the organization is available. Thus, we developed tools 1) for acquiring the medical knowledge contained into a guideline, 2) to translate the derived formalized guideline into a computational formalism, precisely a Petri Net, 3) to maintain different representation levels. The high level representation guarantees that the Patient Workflow follows the guideline prescriptions, while the low level takes into account the specific organization characteristics and allow allocating resources for managing a specific patient in daily practice.

NSF Workshop on Workflow and Process Automation in Information Systems: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

Abstract: HOMU84 Ellis Horrowitz, Muson John B.: An expansive View of reusable software, in: IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, PACW83 L. Parnas, P.C Clements and D. M. Weiss: SE-IO, #5, September 1984 Enhancing Reusability with information hiding, in: ITT Proceedings of the Workshop on Reusability in KARA95 Karagiannis D.: Business Process Programming, 1983, pages 240 247 Management Systems, in SIGOIS, August 1995, Vol 16, No1

Two-Layer Transaction Management for Workflow Management Applications

Abstract: Workflow management applications require advanced transaction management that is not offered by traditional database systems. For this reason, a number of extended transaction models has been proposed in the past. None of these models seems completely adequate, though, because workflow management requires different transactional semantics on different process levels. In the WIDE ESPRIT project, a two-layer transaction management approach has been adopted to cope with this problem. The approach consists of a transaction model built from an orthogonal combination of two existing models and a transaction management architecture with two independent transaction managers. This architecture is integrated into the next generation of the commercial FORO distributed workflow management system.

Doing software development: occasions for automation and formalisation

Abstract: The use of workflow technology has created considerable discussion within the CSCW community. Although the debates have been grounded in theories of work, less has been written about specific organisational and social settings where workflow systems have been used. This paper presents findings from an empirical study where a workflow-like system was in routine use for some of the work. It draws conclusions about the circumstances that made this possible.

Methods for dynamically predicting workflow completion times and workflow escalations

Abstract: A work flow management system (WFMS) can execute one or more instances of a workflow process. The execution of each workflow process is comprised of the execution of component activities. More particularly, dynamically predicting deadlines of a workflow process, whether a workflow process will escalate and whether it is beneficial to preemptively escalate a workflow process.

Class library support for workflow environments and applications

Abstract: Workflow systems are receiving increased attention as they intend to facilitate the operations of enterprises by coordinating and streamlining business activities. The need for automated support and operational models that allow workflow applications to coordinate units of work across multiple servers-according to business defined rules and routes-is becoming critical for the proper management of such activities. In this paper, we describe a Transaction-Oriented Workflow Environment (TOWE) for programming workflow activities. The novelty of our approach resides in the proposed unified abstraction, class libraries, to support workflow activities. The fundamental concept used in the TOWE system is based on the symbiosis of object-oriented programming and interprocess communication concepts. In TOWE, the concurrency abstractions are represented by process objects, active objects acting as processes, which involve asynchronous, location-independent, and application specific process invocations.

Business Process Implementation: Building Workflow Systems

Abstract: The speed with which today's businesses have to adapt to ever-changing circumstances and the complexity required to remain ahead in a competitive environment have forced the development of automated business process systems. Business Process Implementation describes a new method for designing and implementing office workflow systems. This method was developed by Graham Twaddle and his colleagues, and has been analysed and described by Michael Jackson, one of the pre-eminent contributors to current software development practices. It has been tried and tested by Sherwood International UK who have incorporated it into their award-winning Logicware software support system. The method consists of a carefully crafted combination of data and process modelling that permits highly parallel, and therefore highly efficient and flexible workflow. Moreover, it embodies a novel approach to database design and implementation that gives many of the benefits usually ascribed to object orientation but requires only a conventional relational database environment. Key Features of the book include: A clear and insightful description of the method, its range of applicability and its use. Innovative diagram and textual notations for data and process modelling. A thorough description of the Logicware software support system which provides insight into implementation issues and shows how to mechanize and simplify development. Questions at the end of each chapter, providing readers with an opportunity to check their understanding of the concepts involved. This book will be invaluable for anyone who has to develop and use business systems for information and administration and especially to those working in an environment where office workflow is an important concern. It will provide the reader with a way of clearly documenting the processes and process-related knowledge that are the end result of a Business Process Reengineering study. It also provides an approach to implementing the reengineered processes that has been tried and tested successfully in large systems for critical business applications.

WorkBrain: Merging Organizational Memory and Workflow Management Systems

Abstract: Despite the enthusiasm, the workflow management idea faces currently, some problems occur when setting up large workflow applications for complex business processes. To solve some of these problems, a combination of workflow management concepts and the notion of "organizational memory information systems" is suggested. The basic idea is to create an evolutionary workflow management system using an organizational memory storage component consisting of a workflow case base to save the workflow lessons learned and a storage for the general domain knowledge of an enterprise. The concept and a prototypical implementation of the system are presented. The example workflow we use to illustrate the system functions is the inquiry/proposal process of a roller bearing manufacturer.

Reflective Agents for Adaptive Workflows

Abstract: Adaptation to changes in organizational procedures and business rules is a sine qua non for workflow management systems, if they have to be useful to organizations. This paper describes an approach based on workflow agents capable of managing dynamic changes in business policies. The two key aspects of our approach are (i) the agentification of the process engine, in the sense that this is viewed as controlled and executed by autonomous workflow agents capable of reacting and adapting to external changes, and (ii) the fact that these agents are reflective, in the sense that they can observe and thus modify their own behavior. The model is described in the context of an agent-based framework for coordination with reflective capabilities, and is eval uated against a well-known case of dynamic change.

The Carnot Heterogeneous Database Project: Implemented Applications

Abstract: The Carnot project was an ambitious research project in heterogeneous databases. It integrated a variety of techniques to address a wide range of problems in achieving interoperation in heterogeneous environments. Here we describe some of the major implemented applications of this project. These applications concern (a) accessing a legacy scientific database, (b) automating a workflow involving legacy systems, (c) cleaning data, and (d) retrieving semantically appropriate information from structured databases in response to text queries. These applications support scientific decision support, business process management, data integrity enhancement, and analytical decision support, respectively. They demonstrate Carnot‘s capabilities for (a) heterogeneous query processing, (b) relaxed transaction and workflow management, (c) knowledge discovery, and (d) heterogeneous resource model integration.