接力式协作的工作流控制模型

针对工作流管理系统的描述、构造和实现问题，讨论了工作流的建模原则，分析了工作流要素间的关系，提出了一个描述工作流控制过程和组织结构的模型——接力式协作的工作流控制模型RCW，给出了实现工作流管理系统的理论框架．     

多Agent工作流管理系统中消息机制研究

Agent是一个具有感知能力、问题求解能力和与外界进行通讯能力的一个实体.将Agent技术结合到工作流管理中,非常适合构造结构复杂、灵活、智能的工作流管理系统.文章论述将多个Agent应用于工作流管理系统中,重点研究了多Agent消息机制以及在MS Windows COM 环境下的实现.     

普适计算环境中基于群组特性的业务流程管理

局限于桌面设备的交互模式是制约业务流程管理在普适计算环境中广泛应用的主要因素.此外,日趋复杂和灵活的群组活动已成为当前企业业务流程的一个突出特点.传统的工作流管理系统从建模到运行对以上特性难以提供有效的支持.对通用工作流模型的表达能力和工作流运行机制进行扩展,设计并实现了一个具备用户多通道交互能力、支持多种群组协同活动的工作流管理系统.介绍了多通道交互的设计原理和针对群组活动的建模方法和运行机制,然后对应用中的一些结果和发现进行了讨论.     

敏捷制造环境下集成化工作流管理系统的设计与实现

在敏捷制造环境下,提高企业自身敏捷性的一个有效方法是对企业过程进行集成化的管理,而工作流管理系统是对过程进行管理的一种有效手段.本文给出了集成化工作流管理系统结构,详细描述了其相关的实现技术.在系统设计过程中有机地将时间、成本引入到工作流管理系统中,并通过分布式数据采集器实现异构、分布环境下的信息采集和企业生产经营过程的实时跟踪、管理与控制,提高了企业生产活动控制的敏捷性,为企业快速响应内外界环境提供了技术保障,以最终实现过程集成和企业整体优化运行.     

面向地震网络计算的网格工作流管理系统

针对国家地震网络计算应用系统的需求,将工作流技术引入地震网络计算,实现了国家地震网格工作流管理系统.该系统能够将地震领域的部分专业应用定义为一个工作流来为用户提供服务,对系统中的基本服务进行调度,通过网格中间件进行执行,并对任务进行监视和管理.论述了该系统的框架及相关技术,通过对现有的地震行业典型应用的流程分析,构造出一个工作流实例,简化了类似应用服务的开发过程.     

基于C/S和B/S结构的办公工作流管理系统的设计

在分析了基于Lotus Domino/Notes办公工作流管理系统的现状和存在不足的基础上,结合企业实际需要,提出了一个基于C/S和B/S双模式的办公工作流管理系统的设计思想,着重对双模式下软件设计、工作流建模和代码重用等问题进行了详细的讨论,并给出了相应的实现方法.     

基于Agent的Web Services自适应工作流模型的研究

如何让企业可以灵敏反应外部环境的变动并快速改变企业内部的流程作业,是传统工作流管理系统面临的最大挑战.提出一种基于Agent的Web Services工作流模型(AW-WFM)来解决这个难题.在这个模型中,基于Agent的技术实现一种工作流协作机制,而Web Services技术为工作流管理系统提供了计算资源.最后,介绍了AW-WFM在上海大学协同办公系统中的应用.     

基于EDI的异地协同工作流管理系统研究与实现

目前基于J2EE/CORBAWeb Service等技术实现工作流管理系统的集成是一种方法级的集成,方法级的集成在网络分布式工作环境中可以在一定程度上实现工作流管理系统之间的协同.但是基于函数或方法的集成使得工作流管理系统之间只能以同步的模式进行交互,完全基于请求响应机制进行实现.这种模式不适应工作流管理系统之间流转大文档、而网络状况也很难保障的情况.这里给出了一种利用EDI数据交换技术实现的数据交换中间件,有效的解决了工作流管理系统之间有大量数据交换带来的问题.     

具有安全特性的工作流管理系统框架

工作流就是活动及活动之间的变化过程表示的业务流程.工作流管理系统的主要目的就是对业务过程中各活动发生的先后次序及同活动相关的资源的调用进行管理,而实现业务过程的自动化.结合工作流管理联盟给出的工作流管理系统参考模型[1]和接口[3～7],综合描述了工作流管理系统的六个功能模块、五个接口和各个模块间传递的数据,细化管理监控模块,形成了一个具有授权、访问控制等安全服务的工作流管理系统框架.     

基于CORBA支持动态联盟的多Agent工作流管理系统

讨论了基于多Agent的工作流管理系统，可以较好地解决多工作流之间的组织、调度及通信问题，为动态联盟环境下的工作流管理提供技术支持。最后给出了基于CORBA规范和KQML协议的工作流管理系统的实现策略。     

分布式工作流的动态管理

近些年来 ,分布式工作流管理系统设计已经成为计算机学者的研究热点。传统的工作流管理系统大多建立在客户机 /服务器模式上 ,采用集中式的方式。虽然易于实现、维护和管理 ,却存在着系统可扩展性、集成性差 ,产品可靠性、可用性不高 ,安全性能低的显著缺陷。采用分布式策略将工作流系统功能离散化或模块化 ,通过各个模块间的相互协调工作 ,实现预定功能 ,其优点在于能适应大吞吐量的要求、可扩展性高、可靠性强。然而 ,在现代企业管理中 ,由于流程模式改进、客户需求改变等原因迫使流程经常发生变迁。其必须在工作流结构中及时得到反映 ,这就使得动态管理技术在分布式工作流显得必不可少。将从建模、体系结构、运行环境、动态重组几个方面对分布式工作流的动态管理技术进行介绍和探讨。     

WfMS:工作流管理系统

工作流管理系统的主要目标是通过合理地调用和配有关的信息及人力资源来协调业务过程中的各个活动,以促使业务目标的高效实现。在计算机和网络使用得越来越广泛的今天,工作流管理系统正在吸引起自研究机构及产业界越来越多的关流。本文对工作流管理系统的研究现状了了一个总结,详细介绍同工作流有关概念,分类,工作流管理联盟关于工作流管理系统的参考模型及以及当前的一些研究热点与发展趋势。     

Authorization and Access Control of Application Data in Workflow Systems

Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are used to support the modeling and coordinated execution of business processes within an organization or across organizational boundaries. Although some research efforts have addressed requirements for authorization and access control for workflow systems, little attention has been paid to the requirements as they apply to application data accessed or managed by WfMSs. In this paper, we discuss key access control requirements for application data in workflow applications using examples from the healthcare domain, introduce a classification of application data used in workflow systems by analyzing their sources, and then propose a comprehensive data authorization and access control mechanism for WfMSs. This involves four aspects: role, task, process instance-based user group, and data content. For implementation, a predicate-based access control method is used. We believe that the proposed model is applicable to workflow applications and WfMSs with diverse access control requirements.     

Agent-based workflow management systems (WfMSs)

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) based on agent technology can cope with the rapidly evolving business environment better than most other systems as they are more flexible and open. In this paper we describe a possible architecture of such a system by means of our prototype WfMS called JBees. The combination of collaborating agents and the Coloured Petri Net (CPN)-formalism in JBees enables a flexible and adaptive system with the possibility of simulation, analysis, and monitoring of the process execution in order to identify potential inconsistencies and to provide appropriate information to the workflow administrator for the purpose of the process improvement.     

建立工作流数据仓库

工作流管理系统(WfMS)是允许定义、执行、监视和管理商业过程的软件平台。一个WfMS记录了在过程执行中发生的每一个事件,因此,工作流的日志包含了相当多的重要信息。通过分析这些信息,可以评估工作流的性能,了解影响工作流性能高低的原因,从而对工作流进行调整。本文提出一种方案对工作流的日志信息进行加工、综合,建立工作流数据仓库(WDW),然后根据在WDW中进行OLAP的结果,调整WfMS的运行。     

CA-PLAN,a service-oriented workflow

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) are accepted worldwide due to their ability to model and control business processes. Previously, we defined an intra-organizational workflow specification model, Process LANguage (PLAN). PLAN, with associated tools, allowed a user to describe a graph specification for processes, artifacts, and participants in an organization. PLAN has been successfully implemented in Agentflow to support workflow (Agentflow) applications. PLAN, and most current WfMSs are designed to adopt a centralized architecture so that they can be applied to a single organization. However, in such a structure, participants in Agentflow applications in different organizations cannot serve each other with workflows. In this paper, a service-oriented cooperative workflow model, Cooperative Agentflow Process LANguage (CA-PLAN) is presented. CA-PLAN proposes a workflow component model to model inter-organizational processes. In CA-PLAN, an inter-organizational process is partitioned into several intra-organizational processes. Each workflow system inside an organization is modeled as an Integrated Workflow Component (IWC). Each IWC contains a process service interface, specifying process services provided by an organization, in conjunction with a remote process interface specifying what remote processes are used to refer to remote process services provided by other organizations, and intra-organizational processes. An IWC is a workflow node and participant. An inter-organizational process is made up of connections among these process services and remote processes with respect to different IWCs. In this paper, the related service techniques and supporting tools provided in Agentflow systems are presented.     

一种基于日志数据仓库的工作流监控方法

工作流管理系统是允许定义、执行、监视和管理商业过程的软件平台。一个工作流管理系统记录了在过程执行中发生的每一个事件,因此,工作流的日志包含了相当多的重要信息。通过分析这些信息,可以评估工作流的性能,了解影响工作流性能高低的原因,从而对工作流进行调整。本文提出一种方案对工作流的日志信息进行加工、综合,建立工作流数据仓库,然后根据在工作流数据仓库中进行OLAP的结果,调整工作流管理系统的运行。     

Quality of service for workflows and web service processes

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) have been used to support various types of business processes for more than a decade now. In workflows or Web processes for e-commerce and Web service applications, suppliers and customers define a binding agreement or contract between the two parties, specifying quality of service (QoS) items such as products or services to be delivered, deadlines, quality of products, and cost of services. The management of QoS metrics directly impacts the success of organizations participating in e-commerce. Therefore, when services or products are created or managed using workflows or Web processes, the underlying workflow engine must accept the specifications and be able to estimate, monitor, and control the QoS rendered to customers. In this paper, we present a predictive QoS model that makes it possible to compute the quality of service for workflows automatically based on atomic task QoS attributes. We also present the implementation of our QoS model for the METEOR workflow system. We describe the components that have been changed or added, and discuss how they interact to enable the management of QoS.     

Modeling and Managing Interactions among Business Processes

Most workflow management systems (WfMSs) only support the separate andindependent execution of business processes. However, processes often needto interact with each other, in order to synchronize the execution of theiractivities, to exchange process data, to request execution of services, orto notify progresses in process execution. Recent market trends also raisethe need for cooperation and interaction between processes executed in differentorganizations, posing additional challenges. In fact, in order to reduce costsand provide better services, companies are pushed to increase cooperation and toform virtual enterprises, where business processes span across organizationalboundaries and are composed of cooperating workflows executed in differentorganizations. Workflow interaction in a cross-organizational environment iscomplicated by the heterogeneity of workflow management platforms on top ofwhich workflows are defined and executed and by the different and possiblycompeting business policies and business goals that drive process executionin each organization.In this paper we propose a model and system that enable interactionbetween workflows executed in the same or in different organizations. Weextend traditional workflow models by allowing workflows to publish andsubscribe to events, and by enabling the definition of points in the processexecution where events should be sent or received. Event notifications aremanaged by a suitable event service that is capable of filtering andcorrelating events, and of dispatching them to the appropriate targetworkflow instances. The extended model can be easily mapped onto anyworkflow model, since event specific constructs can be specified by means ofordinary workflow activities, for which we provide the implementation. Inaddition, the event service is easily portable to different platforms, anddoes not require integration with the WfMS that supports the cooperatingworkflows. Therefore, the proposed approach is applicable in virtually anyenvironment and is independent on the specific platform adopted