Workflow View Based E-Contracts in a Cross-Organizational E-Services Environment

In an e-service environment, workflow involves not only a single organization but also a number of business partners. Therefore, workflow inter-operability in such an environment is an important issue for enacting workflows. In this article, we introduce our approach of using workflow views as a fundamental support for E-service workflow inter-operability and for controlled visibility of (sub-)workflows by external parties. We discuss various aspects of a workflow view, and their semantics with example usage. Furthermore, we develop a contract model based on workflow views and demonstrate how management of e-contracts can be facilitated, with an Internet start-up E-service inter-organization workflow example.     

Information supply for business processes: coupling workflow with document analysis and information retrieval

Explicit modeling of business processes and their enactment in workflow systems have proved to be valuable in increasing the efficiency of work in organizations. We argue that enacted business processes — i.e. workflow management systems — form a solid basis for adequate information support in complex and knowledge-intensive business processes. To support this claim we demonstrate results from two different projects.The VirtualOffice approach employs workflow-context information to support high-precision document analysis and understanding in standard office settings; the combination of workflow context and document analysis allows for the automatic handling of incoming paper mail with respect to the appropriate workflows.The KnowMore approach focuses on the support of people who work on knowledge-intensive tasks by automatic delivery of relevant and goal-specific information. To this end, workflow context, an extended process model, and a detailed modeling of information sources are combined.     

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     

WIRES: A Methodology for Developing Workflow Applications

Workflow management systems are becoming a relevant support for a large class of business applications, and many workflow models as well as commercial products are currently available. While the large availability of tools facilitates the development and the fulfilment of customer requirements, workflow application development still requires methodological guidelines that drive the developers in the complex task of rapidly producing effective applications. In fact, it is necessary to identify and model the business processes, to design the interfaces towards existing cooperating systems, and to manage implementation aspects in an integrated way. This paper presents the WIRES methodology for developing workflow applications under a uniform modelling paradigm – UML modelling tools with some extensions – that covers all the life cycle of these applications: from conceptual analysis to implementation. High-level analysis is performed under different perspectives, including a business and an organisational perspective. Distribution, interoperability and cooperation with external information systems are considered in this early stage. A set of “workflowability” criteria is provided in order to identify which candidate processes are suited to be implemented as workflows. Non-functional requirements receive particular emphasis in that they are among the most important criteria for deciding whether workflow technology can be actually useful for implementing the business process at hand. The design phase tackles aspects of concurrency and cooperation, distributed transactions and exception handling. Reuse of component workflows, available in a repository as workflow fragments, is a distinguishing feature of the method. Implementation aspects are presented in terms of rules that guide in the selection of a commercial workflow management system suitable for supporting the designed processes, coupled with guidelines for mapping the designed workflows onto the model offered by the selected system.     

一种扩展的工作流过程定义模型

提出了一个支持复杂应用的扩展工作流过程定义模型ScopePModel，它可以描述复杂结构的工作流流程，并且能够清晰地描述任务之间的控制流依赖关系和任务的补偿信息，表达出复杂工作流程的定义；同时，本文所提出的工作流过程定义模型ScopePModel，不仅可以捕捉现实世界业务流程，具有丰富的表达能力，使工作流定义的语义更为明确，而且为工作流过程定义模型验证提供了强大、丰富的理论依据，为工作流过程定义模型验证奠定了良好基础．ScopeWork是我们自行研制开发的工作流管理系统的原型系统，它基于该模型实现了复杂业务过程的工作流过程定义以及调度等功能．     

工作流模型及其形式化描述

工作流是一个业务过程的全部或部分自动执行．为了实现工作流管理功能，我们必须将业务过程从现实世界中抽象出来，并用一种形式化方法对其进行描述，其结果称为是工作流模型．该文主要讨论工作流模型及其形式化描述问题．基于对现实世界业务过程的分析，该文提出一个三维工作流模型，它包含3个子模型：组织模型、数据模型和过程模型，分别从不同的侧面描述工作流的各种属性．文中详细论述各个子模型及其相互关系，并给出三维工作流模型的形式化描述．     

迁移工作流系统模型及框架

目前工作流管理系统在应用过程中普遍存在着建模过程很难完整正确描述业务过程和当具体的业务过程发生很小的变化时,工作流流程定义需要相应的改动等情况,针对这种情况,通过对基于移动agent的工作流管理系统的研究基础上,提出了迁移工作流的系统模型及相关概念,并构建了迁移工作流系统框架,通过迁移工作流的相关特性解决上述问题.     

Petri net-based process monitoring: a workflow management system for process modelling and monitoring

Nowadays business process management is becoming a fundamental piece of many industrial processes. To manage the evolution and interactions between the business actions it is important to accurately model the steps to follow and the resources needed by a process. Workflows provide a way of describing the order of execution and the dependencies between the constituting activities of business processes. Workflow monitoring can help to improve and avoid delays in industrial environments where concurrent processes are carried out. In this article a new Petri net extension for modelling workflow activities together with their required resources is presented: resource-aware Petri nets (RAPN). An intelligent workflow management system for process monitoring and delay prediction is also introduced. Resource aware-Petri nets include time and resources within the classical Petri net workflow representation, facilitating the task of modelling and monitoring workflows. The workflow management system monitors the execution of workflows and detects possible delays using RAPN. In order to test this new approach, different services from a medical maintenance environment have been modelled and simulated.     

基于过程模型的工作流执行语义研究

针对现有工作流建模语言难以兼顾语言的可理解性、执行语义的形式化和描述维度的单一性等问题,提出利用可视化的过程模型作为工作流建模语言。过程模型能从过程、数据、资源、组织等多个角度描述企事业的业务工作流程。根据过程模型的语法和工作流系统的特点,定义形式化执行语义,为过程模型的分析、验证和执行提供理论依据。     

一种可重构的工作流执行模型

为提高工作流系统的适应性和可维护性,提出了一种可重构的工作流执行模型。该模型面向活动行为的相异性和动态性,把活动状态作为描述过程状态的特征,给出了过程状态的形式化定义,建立了过程状态间的层次化关系与优先级关系。在该基础上,严格地给出了基于基本特征集和基于相容特征集的过程状态精化方法,设计了自动生成过程状态转移关系的算法。最后,结合实际应用讨论了一种基于规则的执行模型可重构性实现方法。应用该方法能够提高工作流管理系统适应企业业务过程需求快速变化的能力。     

Ensuring reliability in B2B services: Fault tolerant inter-organizational workflows

In the age of Business-to-Business (B2B) collaboration, ensuring reliability of workflows underlying inter-organizational business processes is of significant importance. There are, however, quite a few challenges towards achieving seamless operation. Such challenges arise from heterogeneity in infrastructure and coordination mechanism at participant organizations, as well as time and cost associated with recovery from failure. Our research presents foundations for a reliable scheme for recovery from failure of workflow processes spanning through multiple business entities. First, a system model is adapted from the mobile computing literature that serves to establish the requirements to be enforced by each participating organization. In our model, we adopt the Maximal Sequence Path (MSP) approach from Yoo et al. (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 2132:222–236, 2001), as a means of decomposing workflows into mobile agent-driven processes that communicate via web services at each organization. This decomposition ensures defining logical points within the dynamics of a workflow instance for locating accurate and consistent states of the system for recovery in case of a failure. Then, a set of algorithms for various business scenarios are developed and presented as practical solutions. These algorithms are shown to create checkpoints such that the system is always in a globally consistent state. As such, these algorithms constitute a set of standards that can be incorporated in business process management suites that support reliable inter-organizational collaboration.     

Workflow View Driven Cross-Organizational Interoperability in a Web Service Environment

Workflow technology has recently been employed not only within businesses but also as a framework for implementing e-services over the Internet. Such e-services typically require collaborative enactment of workflows across multiple organizations. In this paper, we propose the use of workflow views as a fundamental support mechanism for the interoperability of multiple workflows across business organizations. We present a meta-model of workflow views and their semantics using a cross-organization workflow example based on a supply-chain e-service. We also formulate an interoperation model of workflow views and its consistency criteria. Finally, this paper presents an implementation of the model based on XML and contemporary Web services technologies, with adaptation to our E-ADOME workflow engine.     

时间Petri网在企业经营过程重组中的应用研究

本文给出了时间Petri网对企业经营过程中的生产流水线进行建模，并将之与工作流管理系统相结合以进行仿真分析的一种方案；结合实例说明方案的实施过程，其中关键在于约束条件的充定；通过消除“瓶颈”优化生产流水线，实现企业经营过程的有效重组。     

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.     

Workflow Requirements Modelling Using XML

When modelling inter-organisational workflow it is important not to make assumptions such as with regard to the formats of the data exchanged between the workflow participants or the technical infrastructures and platforms, as they can restrict the range of possible workflow management implementations. The approach presented in this paper allows for the conceptual modelling of workflow processes using primitive constructs such as nodes, rules and business documents. The paper presents both a graphical notation for modelling workflows as well as a mapping of the workflow constructs to XML models that follows the Workflow Management Coalition interoperability standards. This allows the modelled workflow to be interpreted and executed by a variety of workflow engines.     

Process-oriented architectures for electronic commerce and interorganizational workflow

The Internet's World Wide Web has become the prime driver of contemporary Electronic commerce (E-commerce). Although the emphasis has moved from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to the Internet, the focus is still on the technology required to exchange information rather than supporting business processes crossing organizational borders. E-commerce is not just about facilitating individual business transactions, it also comprises the management of the causal relations between these transactions. This paper stresses the process aspect of E-commerce by relating it to workflow management. Traditional workflow management systems assume one centralized enactment service and have problems dealing with dynamic changes and local variations. Since E-commerce is characterized by interorganizational workflows distributed over autonomous business units, these systems tend to be useless in the context of E-commerce. This paper reviews new and existing architectures to enable interorganizational workflow. The presentation focuses on two approaches to partition an interorganizational workflow over multiple business partners. Both approaches are evaluated. One of the key concerns in this paper is the possibility to verify the correctness of the interorganizational workflow. The dynamics of the marketplace, with rapid changing business processes and relationships, underlines the need for verification tools.     

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.     

Inheritance of Interorganizational Workflows: How to Agree to Disagree Without Loosing Control?

Internet-based technology, E-commerce, and the rise of networked virtual enterprises have fueled the need for interorganizational workflows. Although XML allows trading partners to exchange information, it cannot be used to coordinate activities in different organizational entities. Business-to-business processes are hindered by the lack of a common language to support collaboration. This paper describes the P2P (Public-To-Private) approach which addresses one of the most notorious problems in this domain: How to design an interorganizational workflow such that there is local autonomy without compromising the consistency of the overall process. The approach uses a notion of inheritance and consists of three steps: (1) create a common understanding of the interorganizational workflow by specifying the shared public workflow, (2) partition the public workflow over the organizational entities involved, and (3) for each organizational entity: create a private workflow which is a subclass of the relevant part of the public workflow. This paper shows that this approach avoids typical anomalies in business-to-business collaboration (e.g., deadlocks and livelocks) and yields an interorganizational workflow which is guaranteed to realize the behavior specified in the public workflow.