Workflow-based systems are typically said to lead to better use of staff and better management and productivity. The first phase in building a workflow-based system is capturing the real-world process in a conceptual ...Workflow-based systems are typically said to lead to better use of staff and better management and productivity. The first phase in building a workflow-based system is capturing the real-world process in a conceptual representation suitable for the following phases of formalization and implementation. The specification may be in text or diagram form or written in a formal language. This paper proposes a flow-based diagrammatic methodology as a tool for workflow specification. The expressiveness of the method is appraised though its ability to capture a workflow-based application. Here we show that the proposed conceptual diagrams are able to express situations arising in practice as an alternative to tools currently used in workflow systems. This is demonstrated by using the proposed methodology to partial build demo systems for two government agencies.展开更多
Consistency degree calculation is established on the basis of known correspondence, but in real life, the correspondence is generally unknown, so how to calculate consistency of two models under unknown correspondence...Consistency degree calculation is established on the basis of known correspondence, but in real life, the correspondence is generally unknown, so how to calculate consistency of two models under unknown correspondence has become a problem. For this condition, we should analyze unknown correspondence due to the influence of different correspondences.In this paper we obtain the relations of transitions based on event relations using branching processes, and build a behavioral matrix of relations. Based on the permutation of behavioral matrix, we express different correspondences, and define a new formula to compute the maximal consistency degree of two workflow nets. Additionally, this paper utilizes an example to show these definitions, computation as well as the advantages.展开更多
Data-centric modeling approach for workflow specification and design has received considerable attention from research and development communities.An architecture for a workflow management system named EZFLOWS was out...Data-centric modeling approach for workflow specification and design has received considerable attention from research and development communities.An architecture for a workflow management system named EZFLOWS was outlined.Key components and research issues associated with the development of EZFLOWS were discussed.展开更多
The correctness of workflow models is one of the major challenges in context of workflow analysis. The aim of this paper is to provide an improved Petri net-based reduction approach for verifying the correctness of wo...The correctness of workflow models is one of the major challenges in context of workflow analysis. The aim of this paper is to provide an improved Petri net-based reduction approach for verifying the correctness of workflow models. To the end, how to represent well-behaved building blocks and control structures of business processes by Petri nets is given at first, and then how to build well-structured process nets is presented. According to the structural characteristics of well-structured process nets, a set of legacy reduction rules are improved and extended, and then a complete Petri-net-based verification approach is proposed. The sound ness and the complexity with polynomial time for the improved re duction method are also proven.展开更多
As a variant of process algebra, π-calculus can describe the interactions between evolving processes. By modeling activity as a process interacting with other processes through ports, this paper presents a new approa...As a variant of process algebra, π-calculus can describe the interactions between evolving processes. By modeling activity as a process interacting with other processes through ports, this paper presents a new approach: representing workilow models using ^-calculus. As a result, the model can characterize the dynamic behaviors of the workflow process in terms of the LTS ( Labeled Transition Semantics) semantics of π-calculus. The main advantage of the worktlow model's formal semantic is that it allows for verification of the model's properties, such as deadlock-free and normal termination. Moreover, the equivalence of worktlow models can be checked thlx)ugh weak bisimulation theorem in the π-caleulus, thus facilitating the optimizationof business processes.展开更多
The issue of document management has been raised for a long time, especially with the appearance of office automation in the 1980s, which led to dematerialization and Electronic Document Management (EDM). In the same ...The issue of document management has been raised for a long time, especially with the appearance of office automation in the 1980s, which led to dematerialization and Electronic Document Management (EDM). In the same period, workflow management has experienced significant development, but has become more focused on the industry. However, it seems to us that document workflows have not had the same interest for the scientific community. But nowadays, the emergence and supremacy of the Internet in electronic exchanges are leading to a massive dematerialization of documents;which requires a conceptual reconsideration of the organizational framework for the processing of said documents in both public and private administrations. This problem seems open to us and deserves the interest of the scientific community. Indeed, EDM has mainly focused on the storage (referencing) and circulation of documents (traceability). It paid little attention to the overall behavior of the system in processing documents. The purpose of our researches is to model document processing systems. In the previous works, we proposed a general model and its specialization in the case of small documents (any document processed by a single person at a time during its processing life cycle), which represent 70% of documents processed by administrations, according to our study. In this contribution, we extend the model for processing small documents to the case where they are managed in a system comprising document classes organized in subclasses;which is the case for most administrations. We have thus observed that this model is a Markovian <i>M<sup>L×K</sup>/M<sup>L×K</sup>/</i>1 queues network. We have analyzed the constraints of this model and deduced certain characteristics and metrics. <span style="white-space:normal;"><i></i></span><i>In fine<span style="white-space:normal;"></span></i>, the ultimate objective of our work is to design a document workflow management system, integrating a component of global behavior prediction.展开更多
WS-BPEL （Web Service Business Process Execution Language）, as an emerging workflow standard, provides a simple and effective way to construct Web Services-oriented workflows. However, to the best of our knowledge, f...WS-BPEL （Web Service Business Process Execution Language）, as an emerging workflow standard, provides a simple and effective way to construct Web Services-oriented workflows. However, to the best of our knowledge, few effort from the industry and academia has addressed the dynamic change problems of BPEL process. This paper proposes a reflective approach to solve this problem. In this paper, a formal meta-object model of process instance is defined; the behavioral consistency criterion based on this model is proposed; a set of modification primitives are given to modify the meta-object while keeping the change atomic and consistent; and in addition, the MOP is offered to provide the programming interfaces for dynamic BPEL process change.展开更多
Scarce resources,precedence and non-determined time-lag are three constraints commonly found in small and medium manufacturing enterprises(SMEs),which are deemed to block the application of workflow management system(...Scarce resources,precedence and non-determined time-lag are three constraints commonly found in small and medium manufacturing enterprises(SMEs),which are deemed to block the application of workflow management system(WfMS). To tackle this problem,a workflow scheduling approach is proposed based on timing workflow net(TWF-net) and genetic algorithm(GA). The workflow is modelled in a form of TWF-net in favour of process simulation and resource conflict checking. After simplifying and reconstructing the set of workflow instance,the conflict resolution problem is transformed into a resource-constrained project scheduling problem(RCPSP),which could be efficiently solved by a heuristic method,such as GA. Finally,problems of various sizes are utilized to test the performance of the proposed algorithm and to compare it with first-come-firstserved(FCFS) strategy. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed method is an overwhelming and effective approach for scheduling the concurrent processes with precedence and resource constraints.展开更多
Business process execution language(BPEL)is a most recognized standard workflow language.However,it is difficult to be used in the ubiquitous system computing environment because it is difficult to describe the contex...Business process execution language(BPEL)is a most recognized standard workflow language.However,it is difficult to be used in the ubiquitous system computing environment because it is difficult to describe the context information in the selection of the flow through the branch.To solve this problem,we propose a new BPEL workflow system with context-awareness by using aspect-oriented programming(AOP).This system is composed of a BPEL system module and a weaving module using AOP for context-aware.The BPEL system module generates a BPEL workflow program.And the weaving module converts a context-aware mark-up language(CAML)document to the aspect-oriented program that is applied to context-aware code without modification of the existing BPEL document.We also define a new document form that is called CAML,which provides a context-aware that is not available in BPEL.The system can generate a context-aware workflow program.It is developed in a way that inserts context information using AOP to provide context-aware services.展开更多
Simulation technique is an efficient approach to realize the planning and scheduling of manufacturing process of products. An appropriate and efficient manufacturing process model is the basis and key of manufacturing...Simulation technique is an efficient approach to realize the planning and scheduling of manufacturing process of products. An appropriate and efficient manufacturing process model is the basis and key of manufacturing process simulation. By analyzing the features of large-sized and complex products, a method of manufacturing process modeling based on activity network is presented and a mapping algorithm of translating BOM/BOP into the manufacturing process model is designed in detail.展开更多
文摘Workflow-based systems are typically said to lead to better use of staff and better management and productivity. The first phase in building a workflow-based system is capturing the real-world process in a conceptual representation suitable for the following phases of formalization and implementation. The specification may be in text or diagram form or written in a formal language. This paper proposes a flow-based diagrammatic methodology as a tool for workflow specification. The expressiveness of the method is appraised though its ability to capture a workflow-based application. Here we show that the proposed conceptual diagrams are able to express situations arising in practice as an alternative to tools currently used in workflow systems. This is demonstrated by using the proposed methodology to partial build demo systems for two government agencies.
基金supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFB1001804)Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan Project(16511100900)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61572360)
文摘Consistency degree calculation is established on the basis of known correspondence, but in real life, the correspondence is generally unknown, so how to calculate consistency of two models under unknown correspondence has become a problem. For this condition, we should analyze unknown correspondence due to the influence of different correspondences.In this paper we obtain the relations of transitions based on event relations using branching processes, and build a behavioral matrix of relations. Based on the permutation of behavioral matrix, we express different correspondences, and define a new formula to compute the maximal consistency degree of two workflow nets. Additionally, this paper utilizes an example to show these definitions, computation as well as the advantages.
基金Project supported by the NSF(No.IIS-0812578),the Grant from IBM to UCSB,and the Grant from China Scholarship Council
文摘Data-centric modeling approach for workflow specification and design has received considerable attention from research and development communities.An architecture for a workflow management system named EZFLOWS was outlined.Key components and research issues associated with the development of EZFLOWS were discussed.
基金Supported by the Scientific Research Foundation of Edu-cation Agency of Liaoning Province (20040088) and Scientific ResearchFoundation of Dalian Nationalities University (20046202)
文摘The correctness of workflow models is one of the major challenges in context of workflow analysis. The aim of this paper is to provide an improved Petri net-based reduction approach for verifying the correctness of workflow models. To the end, how to represent well-behaved building blocks and control structures of business processes by Petri nets is given at first, and then how to build well-structured process nets is presented. According to the structural characteristics of well-structured process nets, a set of legacy reduction rules are improved and extended, and then a complete Petri-net-based verification approach is proposed. The sound ness and the complexity with polynomial time for the improved re duction method are also proven.
文摘As a variant of process algebra, π-calculus can describe the interactions between evolving processes. By modeling activity as a process interacting with other processes through ports, this paper presents a new approach: representing workilow models using ^-calculus. As a result, the model can characterize the dynamic behaviors of the workflow process in terms of the LTS ( Labeled Transition Semantics) semantics of π-calculus. The main advantage of the worktlow model's formal semantic is that it allows for verification of the model's properties, such as deadlock-free and normal termination. Moreover, the equivalence of worktlow models can be checked thlx)ugh weak bisimulation theorem in the π-caleulus, thus facilitating the optimizationof business processes.
文摘The issue of document management has been raised for a long time, especially with the appearance of office automation in the 1980s, which led to dematerialization and Electronic Document Management (EDM). In the same period, workflow management has experienced significant development, but has become more focused on the industry. However, it seems to us that document workflows have not had the same interest for the scientific community. But nowadays, the emergence and supremacy of the Internet in electronic exchanges are leading to a massive dematerialization of documents;which requires a conceptual reconsideration of the organizational framework for the processing of said documents in both public and private administrations. This problem seems open to us and deserves the interest of the scientific community. Indeed, EDM has mainly focused on the storage (referencing) and circulation of documents (traceability). It paid little attention to the overall behavior of the system in processing documents. The purpose of our researches is to model document processing systems. In the previous works, we proposed a general model and its specialization in the case of small documents (any document processed by a single person at a time during its processing life cycle), which represent 70% of documents processed by administrations, according to our study. In this contribution, we extend the model for processing small documents to the case where they are managed in a system comprising document classes organized in subclasses;which is the case for most administrations. We have thus observed that this model is a Markovian <i>M<sup>L×K</sup>/M<sup>L×K</sup>/</i>1 queues network. We have analyzed the constraints of this model and deduced certain characteristics and metrics. <span style="white-space:normal;"><i></i></span><i>In fine<span style="white-space:normal;"></span></i>, the ultimate objective of our work is to design a document workflow management system, integrating a component of global behavior prediction.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(60473066, 60773006)the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(863 Program)(2006AA012168)
文摘WS-BPEL （Web Service Business Process Execution Language）, as an emerging workflow standard, provides a simple and effective way to construct Web Services-oriented workflows. However, to the best of our knowledge, few effort from the industry and academia has addressed the dynamic change problems of BPEL process. This paper proposes a reflective approach to solve this problem. In this paper, a formal meta-object model of process instance is defined; the behavioral consistency criterion based on this model is proposed; a set of modification primitives are given to modify the meta-object while keeping the change atomic and consistent; and in addition, the MOP is offered to provide the programming interfaces for dynamic BPEL process change.
基金Supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China(No.2015M572022)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51175304)
文摘Scarce resources,precedence and non-determined time-lag are three constraints commonly found in small and medium manufacturing enterprises(SMEs),which are deemed to block the application of workflow management system(WfMS). To tackle this problem,a workflow scheduling approach is proposed based on timing workflow net(TWF-net) and genetic algorithm(GA). The workflow is modelled in a form of TWF-net in favour of process simulation and resource conflict checking. After simplifying and reconstructing the set of workflow instance,the conflict resolution problem is transformed into a resource-constrained project scheduling problem(RCPSP),which could be efficiently solved by a heuristic method,such as GA. Finally,problems of various sizes are utilized to test the performance of the proposed algorithm and to compare it with first-come-firstserved(FCFS) strategy. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed method is an overwhelming and effective approach for scheduling the concurrent processes with precedence and resource constraints.
基金Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)funded by the Ministry of Education,Science and Technology(No.2010-0025831)
文摘Business process execution language(BPEL)is a most recognized standard workflow language.However,it is difficult to be used in the ubiquitous system computing environment because it is difficult to describe the context information in the selection of the flow through the branch.To solve this problem,we propose a new BPEL workflow system with context-awareness by using aspect-oriented programming(AOP).This system is composed of a BPEL system module and a weaving module using AOP for context-aware.The BPEL system module generates a BPEL workflow program.And the weaving module converts a context-aware mark-up language(CAML)document to the aspect-oriented program that is applied to context-aware code without modification of the existing BPEL document.We also define a new document form that is called CAML,which provides a context-aware that is not available in BPEL.The system can generate a context-aware workflow program.It is developed in a way that inserts context information using AOP to provide context-aware services.
文摘Simulation technique is an efficient approach to realize the planning and scheduling of manufacturing process of products. An appropriate and efficient manufacturing process model is the basis and key of manufacturing process simulation. By analyzing the features of large-sized and complex products, a method of manufacturing process modeling based on activity network is presented and a mapping algorithm of translating BOM/BOP into the manufacturing process model is designed in detail.
