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

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. Recommended by: Omran Bukhres and e. Kühn     

基于XML和ECA规则的工作流建模及执行

长期以来,工作流产品互操作性的缺乏、尤其是工作流建模语言互操作性缺乏,已成为阻碍工作流技术进一步发展的重要因素,XML作为万维网组织规定的结构化的标记语言,它可以用作描述过程模型的共同语法格式,有望解决工作流描述语言的互操作性问题。文章介绍了采用基于XML的工作流描述语言XFL及其工作流管理系统XFMS。由于XFL本身并不是可执行模型,XFMS系统在低层采用了基于规则的工作流执行系统。并给出了从XFL语言到ECA规则的映射方式,所采用的方法综合了面向规则系统的灵活性以及基于XML模型的可交换性和易学性。     

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。     

工作流技术在办公自动化中的应用研究

新环境下企业对办公自动化系统产生了新的需求,不仅要满足信息共享还要能协同办公辅助决策等。该文以基于工作流技术办公自动化系统模型作为研究的出发点,通过对工作流管理系统的分析,设计出工作流管理系统应用模型,然后对系统中的两个重要环节工作流的定义、工作流引擎进行实现研究,最后阐述了企业使用工作流产品的优点,并对工作流软件的后续发展作了展望。     

面向并行工程的产品开发工作流建模研究

工作流管理系统能够对并行工程概念指导下的产品开发过程提供有力支持。工作流建模是工作流管理系统的首要问题。文章从并行工程的P＿PROCE模型出发,形式化的定义了产品开发的工作流模型。在此基础上,研究了产品开发工作流的建模方法,重点介绍了一种基于模板映射的工作流建模技术。文中还介绍了工作流建模系统的结构及其应用情况。     

Dealing with forward and backward jumps in workflow management systems

Workflow management systems (WfMS) offer a promising technology for the realization of process-centered application systems. A deficiency of existing WfMS is their inadequate support for dealing with exceptional deviations from the standard procedure. In the ADEPT project, therefore, we have developed advanced concepts for workflow modeling and execution, which aim at the increase of flexibility in WfMS. On the one hand we allow workflow designers to model exceptional execution paths already at buildtime provided that these deviations are known in advance. On the other hand authorized users may dynamically deviate from the pre-modeled workflow at runtime as well in order to deal with unforeseen events. In this paper, we focus on forward and backward jumps needed in this context. We describe sophisticated modeling concepts for capturing deviations in workflow models already at buildtime, and we show how forward and backward jumps (of different semantics) can be correctly applied in an ad-hoc manner during runtime as well. We work out basic requirements, facilities, and limitations arising in this context. Our experiences with applications from different domains have shown that the developed concepts will form a key part of process flexibility in process-centered information systems. Received: 6 October 2002 / Accepted: 8 January 2003 Published online: 27 February 2003 This paper is a revised and extended version of [40]. The described work was partially performed in the research project “Scalability in Adaptive Workflow Management Systems” funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).     

一类基于IPO的工作流过程建模语言规范分析

在工作流管理系统中,过程模型信息的交换是通过过程建模语言来实现的。不同的过程模型由其专有语言来定义,它们的表达方式可作为选择建模语言的基准。该文首先介绍现已存在的工作流过程建模语言的分类,然后针对其中的一类,着重对两个比较典型的过程定义语言规范进行了分析和比较。     

工作流管理系统核心模型应用研究

在新一轮的运营系统建设中,工作流技术已成为电信运营支撑系统的核心技术。在引入相关概念之后,针对电信业务的特点着重描述了广东电信综合业务支撑系统中工作流管理系统（IBSS）的设计和应用。IBSS工作流模型参考了通用工作流管理平台的特点,尽量满足灵活性和扩展性的要求,同时又针对电信业务的特殊性做了一些处理和优化。事实证明,这些措施起到了简化工作流模型、有效地提高系统效率的作用。