DocumentCode :
3146713
Title :
Modelling extensions for concurrent workflow coordination
Author :
Barros, A.P. ; ter Hofstede, A.H.M.
Author_Institution :
Distributed Syst. Technol. Centre, Queensland Univ., Brisbane, Qld., Australia
fYear :
1999
fDate :
1999
Firstpage :
336
Lastpage :
347
Abstract :
Business processes exhibit concurrent execution, where different and sometimes inter-dependent parts, are isolated and run in parallel. In current workflow tools, this requirement is supported through a synchronisation mechanism allowing for the convergence of parallel paths of execution. In this paper we argue that more sophisticated forms of inter-process communication are necessary for increased workflow automation. In particular three extensions which preserve the parallelisation of execution paths are proposed: the adaption of synchronous and asynchronous messaging for data/document flow across execution paths, aborts of related execution paths, and exclusive, i.e. atomic, execution of nested processes. Illustrations from an industrial case study show how these constructs combine with classical workflow constructs to capture complex but common themes of business processing. To precisely impart the ramifications for workflow execution, we show how a formal semantics can be assigned for the constructs
Keywords :
business data processing; parallel processing; workflow management software; asynchronous messaging; business processes; concurrent execution; concurrent workflow coordination; data flow; document flow; extension modelling; formal semantics; inter-process communication; parallelisation; synchronisation mechanism; synchronous messaging; workflow automation; Computational Intelligence Society; Computerized monitoring; Concurrent computing; Convergence; Databases; Design automation; Job shop scheduling; Process control; Processor scheduling; Read only memory;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Cooperative Information Systems, 1999. CoopIS '99. Proceedings. 1999 IFCIS International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Edinburgh
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-0384-5
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/COOPIS.1999.792182
Filename :
792182
Link To Document :
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