A Logic Framework for Reasoning on Workflow Executions
Domenico Sacca2004
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Abstract
Many research works deal with the phase of modeling workflow schemes and several formalisms for specifying structural properties have been already proposed to support the designer in devising all admissible execution scenarios. Most of such formalisms are based on graphical representations in order to give a simple and intuitive description of the workflow structure.
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Contents Logic Based Approaches to Workflow Modeling and Verification 1
A workflow is a collection of coordinated activities designed to carry out a well-defined complex process, such as trip planning, student registration, or a business process in a large enterprise. An activity in a workflow might be performed by a human, a device, or a program. Workflow management systems (or WfMS ) provide a framework for capturing the interaction among the activities in a workflow and are recognized as a new paradigm for integrating disparate systems, including legacy systems. A large workflow system might involve many disparate activities that are coordinated in complex ways and are subject to many constraints. Thus, modeling such systems and ensuring that they perform according to the specifications is not an easy task. To be able to analyze the properties of workflows, the latter must be specified using a formalism with well-defined semantics. The popular formalisms in this area are the various logics, Petri Nets [1,35], Event-Condition-Action rules , and State Charts . In this chapter we survey and compare a number of logic-based formalisms that were proposed in the literature.
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