Service-based flexible workflow system for virtual enterprise

Using the services provided by virtual enterprises, we presented a solution to implement flexible inter-enterprise workflow management. Services were the responses of events that can be accessed programmatically on the Internet by HTTP protocol. Services were obtained according to some standardized service templates. The workflow engine's flexible control to a request was bound to appropriate services and their providers by using a constraint-based, dynamic binding mechanism. Hence, a flexible and collaborative business was achieved. The workflow management system supports virtual enterprise, and the styles of virtual enterprises can be adjusted readily to adapt various situations.

Using Mobile Agents to Implement Workflow System

Current workflow management systems usually adopt the existing technologies such as TCP/IP-based Web technologies and CORBA as well to fulfill the bottom communications. Very often it has been considered only from a theoretical point of view, mainly for the lack of concrete possibilities to execute with elasticity. MAT (Mobile Agent Technology) represents a very attractive approach to the distributed control of computer networks and a valid alternative to the implementation of strategies for workflow system. This paper mainly focuses on improving the performance of workflow system by using MAT. Firstly, the performances of workflow systems based on both CORBA and mobile agent are summarized and analyzed; Secondly, the performance contrast is presented by introducing the mathematic model of each kind of data interaction process respectively. Last, a mobile agentbased workflow system named MAWMS is presented and described in detail. Key words workflow - Mobile Agent - Contract Net Protocol - CORBA - Web CLC number TP 393 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60272024) and National Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (0411014100)Biography: LI Jie, (1975-), male, lector, Ph. D., research direction: workflow, mobile agent, network management.

Context-aware BPEL workflow system using aspect-oriented programming

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.

Multi-objective workflow scheduling in cloud system based on cooperative multi-swarm optimization algorithm

In order to improve the performance of multi-objective workflow scheduling in cloud system, a multi-swarm multiobjective optimization algorithm(MSMOOA) is proposed to satisfy multiple conflicting objectives. Inspired by division of the same species into multiple swarms for different objectives and information sharing among these swarms in nature, each physical machine in the data center is considered a swarm and employs improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization to find out non-dominated solutions with one objective in MSMOOA. The particles in each swarm are divided into two classes and adopt different strategies to evolve cooperatively. One class of particles can communicate with several swarms simultaneously to promote the information sharing among swarms and the other class of particles can only exchange information with the particles located in the same swarm. Furthermore, in order to avoid the influence by the elastic available resources, a manager server is adopted in the cloud data center to collect the available resources for scheduling. The quality of the proposed method with other related approaches is evaluated by using hybrid and parallel workflow applications. The experiment results highlight the better performance of the MSMOOA than that of compared algorithms.

Use of content management systems to address nursing workflow

Nurses are at the forefront of providing healthcare services to individuals of all age groups and with varying medical conditions.Aside from the critical knowledge and technical skills from nursing science,advancement in technology has assisted nurses in delivering quality nursing care by streamlining workflow processes and ensuring that data can easily be retrieved or modified.Electronic health records dramatically changed the landscape of the healthcare practice by providing an electronic means to store data and for healthcare professionals to retrieve and manipulate health information in a secured and collaborative environment.But with the nature of data being stored in the electronic health records,nurses still need to organize and process these data into relevant information,knowledge or wisdom so they can provide better holistic care to patients.This discussion paper details the role of content management systems in addressing nursing workflow by providing a mechanism for nurses to be developers themselves,and not just users or consumers of health innovative technologies.By using content management systems as platform for application development,nurses or other healthcare professionals,may be able to address problems with internal workflow without having to incur huge amounts in software development,or having to extensively learn programming languages.

Artifact-centric workflow management system

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.

Workflow logs analysis system for enterprise performance measurement

Workflow logs that record the execution of business processes offer very valuable data resource for real-time enterprise performance measurement. In this paper, a novel scheme that uses the technology of data warehouse and OLAP to explore workflow logs and create complex analysis reports for enterprise performance measurement is proposed. Three key points of this scheme are studied: 1) the measure set; 2) the open and flexible architecture for workflow logs analysis system; 3) the data models in WFMS and data warehouse. A case study that shows the validity of the scheme is also provided.

Conflict detection and resolution for authorization policies in workflow systems

The specification of authorization policies in access control models proposed so far cannot satisfy the requirements in workflow management systems(WFMSs).Furthermore,existing approaches have not provided effective conflict detection and resolution methods to maintain the consistency of authorization polices in WFMSs.To address these concerns,we propose the definition of authorization policies in which context constraints are considered and the complicated requirements in WFMSs can be satisfied.Based on the definition,we put forward static and dynamic conflict detection methods for authorization policies.By defining two new concepts,the precedence establishment rule and the conflict resolution policy,we provide a flexible approach to resolving conflicts.

Adaptive resource allocation for workflow containerization on Kubernetes

In a cloud-native era,the Kubernetes-based workflow engine enables workflow containerized execution through the inherent abilities of Kubernetes.However,when encountering continuous workflow requests and unexpected resource request spikes,the engine is limited to the current workflow load information for resource allocation,which lacks the agility and predictability of resource allocation,resulting in over and underprovisioning resources.This mechanism seriously hinders workflow execution efficiency and leads to high resource waste.To overcome these drawbacks,we propose an adaptive resource allocation scheme named adaptive resource allocation scheme(ARAS)for the Kubernetes-based workflow engines.Considering potential future workflow task requests within the current task pod’s lifecycle,the ARAS uses a resource scaling strategy to allocate resources in response to high-concurrency workflow scenarios.The ARAS offers resource discovery,resource evaluation,and allocation functionalities and serves as a key component for our tailored workflow engine(KubeAdaptor).By integrating the ARAS into KubeAdaptor for workflow containerized execution,we demonstrate the practical abilities of KubeAdaptor and the advantages of our ARAS.Compared with the baseline algorithm,experimental evaluation under three distinct workflow arrival patterns shows that ARAS gains time-saving of 9.8% to 40.92% in the average total duration of all workflows,time-saving of 26.4% to 79.86% in the average duration of individual workflow,and an increase of 1% to 16% in centrol processing unit(CPU)and memory resource usage rate.

Flexible Workflow Management in Agile Supply Chain System

With the vehement development of global competition , Agile Supply Chain (ASC) becomes an effective approach that supports dynamic ent erprise alliance and realizes agile manufacturing, as for the enterprises to cap ture market opportunities rapidly and strengthen their anti-risk ability. As Ag ile Supply Chain System (ASCS) is dynamic and distributed, the realization of it ’s processes needs to be much flexible. Often in Agile Supply Chain System (ASCS ), there are many dynamic tasks, many changes of the processes, and cooperative workflows, which need the workflows able to be adjusted agilely and smoothly, no t much affecting others. This paper will propose a flexible workflow management for achieving the agility and compatibility. At the first of the paper, we will discuss the situation in which Agile Supply C hain System is applied, and then we will elaborate the characteristics of Agile Supply Chain System. So with that, the shortcomings of the process managements t hat are, at present, used in Supply Chain Systems will be displayed clearly. The n, the proposal will be given in the paper, to resolve the problems in the prese nt process management in ASCS. We will see supply chain systems implemented mult i-agent-based technology to adapt to the dynamic environment, however in many systems, coordination of the workflows is executed by the explicit messages comm unicated between the agents. This will lead to a tightly coupled system. To over come it, the paper suggests the workflow management in agent-based ASCS using t he Events-Triggering mechanism, instead of the explicit messages. We create Eve nts-Triggering contents and rules, having push-pull mechanism, event-state se t and triggering-conditions, and store them in the distributed database subject ed to the corresponding agents. Adjusting the Events-Triggering data will be us ed to adapt to the dynamic tasks and the changes of processes. In sum, we will p resent the methods of process modeling, the system structure, and the executing -mechanism of the flexible workflow management we propose in the paper. Also, t he paper outlines several exception-handling policies for the flexible workflow management, in succession. And at the final of the paper, we discuss the realiz ation of the flexible workflow management in Agile Supply Chain System. The flex ible workflow management will be implemented using CORBA services and Java techn ology for the distributed systems. CORBA is chosen as the specification of distr ibuted electronic data exchange, and Java as the construction tool of the system . The framework of the flexible workflow management constructed on them is showe d in the paper.

A prototype of workflow management system for construction design projects

A great deal of benefits can be achieved if information and process are integrated within the building design project. This paper aims to establish a prototype of workflow management system for construction design project through the application of workflow technology. The composition and function of prototype is presented to satisfy the needs of information share and process integration. By integrating all subsystems and modules of the prototype, the whole system can deal with design information-flow modeling, emulating and optimizing, task planning and distributing, automatic tracking and monitoring, as well as network service, etc. In this way, the collaborative design environment of building design proiect is brought into being.

Research of Web-based Workflow Management System

The state of the art of workflow management techniques in research is introduced. The research and development trends of Workflow Management System (WFMS) are presented. On basis of analysis and comparison of kinds of WFMSs, a WFMS based on Web technology and distributed object management is proposed. Finally, the application of the WFMS in supply chain management is described in detail.

FMS-Workflow Modeling Based on P-Timed Stochastic Petri Net

In this paper, we propose astochastic Petri net model P-timed Workflow (WPTSPN) to specify, verify, and analyze a business process (BP) of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). After formalizing the semantics of our model, we illustrate how to verifysome of its properties (reachability, safety, boundedness, liveness, correctness, alive tokens, and security) in the P-Timed context. Next, we validate the relevance of the proposed model with MATLAB simulation through a specific FMS case study. Finally, we use a generalized truncated density function to predict the duration of a token’s sojourn (residence) in a timed place with respect to the sequence states of the global FMS workflow.

基于EJB和JMS实现的Workflow系统

工作流系统是一种智能化的信息系统。在经营过程中,它既能将相关信息以电子方式自动地传送到经营过程中指定的地点,又能管理和协调这些信息。随着现代信息技术的发展,工作流系统也日益得以完善,被看作是实施BPR的有效途径。提出了一种基于EJB组件化设计思想实现的工作流系统,并且在系统中采用了JMS消息管理机制。

一种基于XML的Workflow过程定义语言

工作流是指一个业务操作从开始到结束的整个过程,是一系列相互衔接、自动进行的业务活动或任务,它在流程管理方面有很重要的应用。由于工作流程和业务规则的变更会经常发生,所以提供一种好的Workflow过程定义方法或语言已经成为目前工作流技术得以进一步发展和广泛应用的关键。在WPDL的基础上提出了一种基于XML的简单易用的Workflow过程定义语言。

Research on Petri Net Based Modeling and Analyzing Methods for Workflow Process

Workflow management is an important aspect in CSCW at present. The elementary knowledge of workflow process is introduced, the Petri nets based process modeling methodology and basic definitions are provided, and the analysis and verification of structural and behavioral correctness of workflow process are discussed. Finally, the algorithm of verification of process definitions is proposed.

An Effective Approach to Verify the Correctness of Workflow Process Models Based on Petri Net

Along with the extensive use of workflow, analysis methods to verify the correctness of the workflow are becoming more and more important. In the paper, we exploit the verification method based on Petri net for workflow process models which deals with the verification of workflow and finds the potential errors in the process design. Additionally, an efficient verification algorithm is given.

AGENT-BASED WORKFLOW COORDINATION FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

To align customer demand with suppliers for reducing work in process and supply costs and increasing re sp onsiveness to customer requirements, a real time collaborative supply chain mana gement system is essential. A solution to the realization of supply chain manage ment capable of timely responding to customer requirements is proposed. Workflow automation is used to manage process interaction across enterprises; Agents can be automatically invoked by supply chain workflow process and are used to pro mote the flexibility and reconfigurability by providing the mechanism in support of distributed compution in an enterprises to meet the requirements of performa nce and business dynamics. An approach that supports agent based workflow proce ss in a supply chain is proposed. And the coordination mechanism between agents is also discussed.

企业协同知识管理工作流模型研究——基于action workflow方法

在借鉴问题解决导向的企业知识管理的过程描述基础上,指出企业协同知识管理过程是以协同知识库为核心的协同问题解决过程,并结合企业协同知识管理的工作流建模要求,论述了action work-flow工作流建模方法的特点,以及action workflow方法在企业协同知识管理中的应用。

Analysis of response time probability distribution of workflows

An evaluation approach for the response time probability distribution of workflows based on the fluid stochastic Petri net formalism is presented. Firstly, some problems about stochastic workflow net modeling are discussed. Then how to convert a stochastic workflow net model into a fluid stochastic Petri net model is described. The response time distribution can be obtained directly upon the transient state solution of the fluid stochastic Petri net model. In the proposed approach, there are not any restrictions on the structure of workflow models, and the processing times of workflow tasks can be modeled by using arbitrary probability distributions. Large workflow models can be efficiently tackled by recursively using a net reduction technique.