Experiences with workflow management

Workflows for e-Science

In this chapter, we take a step back from the individual applications and software systems and attempt to categorize the types of issues that we are facing today and the challenges we see ahead. This is by no means a complete picture of the challenges but rather a set of observations about the various aspects of workflow management. In a broad sense, we are organizing our thoughts in terms of the different workflow systems discussed in this book, from the user interface down to the execution environment.

1995

Recent recession has compelled many companies to find more effective ways to conduct their business. One remedy suggested is to model organizational dynamics as "business processes" and provide a suitable tool support for this. In this context the buzzwords business process re-engineering and workflow have been often quoted. The basic idea in this thinking is to view the functioning of an organization to consist of business processes and provide computer support for as large part of the processes as possible through "workflow systems". There are currently perhaps hundreds of products which claim to support workflows. We believe that workflow techniques are a proper way of supporting the process approach, but that the approach requires further development for several reasons. In this paper, we will discuss the development needs by presenting organizational and architectural considerations and requirements resulting from them for the workflow techniques. One centra...

Bis, 2005

A new class of problems has been identified for workflow management wherein this technology imposes an additional overhead on users which is not adequately compensated by the benefits gained. Multiple observations from real cases identify a contradiction between the preferred work practice and some fundamental principles behind workflow systems. The focus of this paper is primarily to motivate the problem, however, we will also provide deliberations on the impact of these advanced process requirements on existing technology solutions.

Handbook on Business Process Management 1, 2010

Workflow management has its origin in the office automation systems of the seventies, but it is not until fairly recently that conceptual and technological breakthroughs have led to its widespread adoption. In fact, nowadays, process-awareness has become an accepted and integral part of various types of systems. Through the use of process-aware information systems, workflows can be specified and enacted,

2014

Requirements Engineering, 2002

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. Nonfunctional 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.

Proceedings of conference on Organizational computing systems - COCS '95, 1995

Work.flow systems have been proposed as a means for automating business procedures. While growing in popularity, many fundamental problems, such as supporting unstructured office activities, still remain before this technology will be especially useful in the office. This paper examines difficulties associated with handling unstructured office activities and argues that it is both necessary and possible for workflow technology to better support office workers who perform these activities. The approach illustrated in this paper advocates reducing the rigidity of the workflow system's computational model, which, in turn, requires the system to better support the contextual information needs of the workers perfnrming the unstructured activities. Collaborative Technology Research Group Department of Computer Science rick @adUv~ie;l~;i:Yw~t.~atc]~'ttB(q.);u~e~"ee.LC~'.3cXi~l~;ado.edu see [201). While the business environment may currently be more accepting of workflow than it has been at any time in the past, many fundamental problems still need to be addressed befi?re the technology will be especially useful in the office (e.g., [11,[22]).

2010

Supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to stay competitive. An important task is the specification of workflow, i.e. the parts of a business process that can be supported by a computer-based system. "Agradece a la llama su luz, pero no olvides el pie del candil que, constante y paciente, la sostiene en la sombra". {Thank the flame for its light, but do not forget the lampholder standing in the shade with constancy of patience}. Rabindranath Tagore This thesis would never have become reality without the help and suggestions of many supportive people. My biggest thanks go to Professor Dr. Jean Vanderdonckt, my supervisor, for his wisdom, invaluable guidance and professionalism from the beginning to the end in the course of my research. Professor Vanderdonckt has been an excellent mentor and has provided unfailing support throughout my Ph.D. course and my stay in Belgium.

5th International Conference on Concurrent Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, 1998

Consumers today are making increasing demands on the quality of products and services offered by businesses worldwide and organizations such as educational institutions are no exception to the trend. Nevertheless, many institutions, including universities, seem to be unaware of this, continuing to maintain structures and methods of working which no longer correspond to the emerging demands of the market. In this project we have aimed to counter this tendency by introducing a prototype system of workflow management ...

Social, Managerial, and Organizational Dimensions of Enterprise Information Systems

This chapter proposes a cooperative methodology for information system (IS) development, focusing on the end user’s collaboration in the process, providing the training and tools required to obtain the characteristics of the processes in which he/she is involved and actively integrating the user in the IS development team. Each of the steps involved in IS development is coordinated by a meta-CASE tool based on a workflow management system (WfMS). An important characteristic of the authors’ methodology is the utilization of tools that allow to realize functions of reengineering to adapt existing systems allowing to add new functionalities or modifying the already existing ones. This methodology provides a high degree of reliability in the development of the system, creating competitive advantages for the organization by reducing times and costs in the generation of the information system (IS).