ObjectOriented Modeling Approaches to AgentBased CrossOrganizational Workflow Systems

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ObjectOriented Modeling Approaches to AgentBased CrossOrganizational Workflow Systems

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Back-Up Slides. 19. Related Work. F. Casati, e-Flow, HP Labs ... roll-back, re-execute. 26. Basic Configuration Approach. 27. 28. WARP Process Steps-Details ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: ObjectOriented Modeling Approaches to AgentBased CrossOrganizational Workflow Systems

1
Object-Oriented Modeling Approaches to
Agent-Based Cross-Organizational Workflow Systems

Brian Blake
Department of Computer ScienceGeorgetown
Universityblakeb_at_cs.georgetown.edu
Hassan Gomaa
Department of Information and Software
Engineering George Mason University
hgomaa_at_gmu.edu
Presented at SELMAS 03
May 4, 2003

2
Overview

Background
Service-Based Cross-Organizational Workflow (SCW)
Environment
An Agent Architecture to Support SCW
Software Development Process for SCW
Object-Oriented Modeling of SCW Agents
Contributions and Future Research

3
Emergence of the SCW Environment

Implications
The Internet will become a universal service
repository
Higher-order functionality can be constructed by
composing universally-available on-line services
Businesses will be able to enhance their own
services by incorporating other distributed
services
Technologies needed
Software architecture and component based
software
Workflow modeling, control, and coordination
Web Services
Service brokering and discovery
-gt Multi-Agent systems

4
The SCW Environment Travel Domain

Components of the SCW Environment
Mechanisms to Broker Services
Mechanisms to Control Interaction of Brokers
Interaction and Coordination Protocols

5
WARP Architecture

Composition of component-based services for
workflow-based interactions
Workflow Automation through Agent-Based
Reflective Processes (WARP)
Method
Semi-automated specification of workflow-based
process in UML
Automated extraction of workflow information and
populating shared data structure
Automated configuration of WARP agents into WFMS
UML Models to represent static, dynamic, and
non-functional concerns
Tools for Agent-based Middleware Architecture to
support workflow-based coordination of
distributed services

6
WARP Architecture

Layered architecture
Application Coordination Layer
Automated Configuration Layer
Application Coordination Layer Agents
Workflow Manager Agents (WMA)
Interpret workflow operational specifications
from shared data repository
Manage nonfunctional aspects of workflow
enactment (synchronization, complex interactions)
Role Manager Agents (RMA)
Interpret service characteristics from shared
data repository
Invoke distributed services during workflow
enactment

7
WARP Architecture

Automated Configuration Layer Agents
Global Workflow Manager Agents (GWMA)
Interpret designer-level representations for
workflow process operations
Populate workflow operations in shared data
repository
Site Manager Agents (SMA)
Discover characteristics of workflow services
Use this to populate service data model

8
(No Transcript)
9
Service Discovery using Agents
10
The Agent-SCW Software Process
11
Multiple View Workflow Models with UML
12
Service Representation View in UML

Services declared using UML class notation
Attributes represent Service Names
Attribute data types represent the type of
service (e.g., web service, component, local
services)
Site Manager Agent discovers service
characteristics

13
Role Association View in UML

Used to model workflow role
Role represented by class
Association shows which services required for
role
The association name can declare specific
service(s)
Used to dynamically bind Role Manager Agents to
services

14
Workflow Structural View

Used to show structure of workflow process
Use UML aggregation hierarchy
Aggregate class represents workflow process
Component classes depict roles required for
process

15
Dynamic Models

Control Model
UML Activity diagrams used to show sequence in
which services are executed
UML swimlanes represent the roles
UML activities specify the services
Role Collaboration Model
UML Activity diagrams show exchange of
information between services
Class notation used to depict messages

16
Dynamic Models (contd)
17
Contributions and Future Research

Contributions
Reusable agent-based architecture and software
process supporting composition of distributed
services.
Supports workflow process modeling through visual
OO and textual representations
Separation of concerns through multiple UML views
Future Research
Additional OO models and patterns to describe
interaction protocols for advanced workflow
operations
WARP currently supports J2EE services
Extend to support WSDL services
Design of QoS aware component services
Client and server components negotiate for
desired QoS level

18
Back-Up Slides
19
Related Work

F. Casati, e-Flow, HP Labs
Flowchart specification of control and agent
programming
B. Benatallah, SELF-Serve, Univ. New South Wales
UML statecharts for process specification or
specification of component coordination
M. Singh(NCSU), S. Helal (UFl), and M. Griss
(UCSC)
Combine software agent concepts with workflow
enactment of services

20
Motivation

Advances in On-line Services
Modularity in Component-based Services
J2EE, EJB, .Net, RDBMS Business Object Support
(Oracle, SQLServer)
Progress Toward Semantic Web Services
RDF,WSDL, WSFL, BPEL4WS, BPML
Advances in Service Accessibility and
Connectivity (Message Exchange)
SOAP, UDDI, CORBA, Jini Technologies, Reflection

21
Data Model for Service Discovery
22
Object-Oriented Modeling

Model-Driven Control
Models that describe
Underlying Services
Responsibility of Broker Agents (RMA)
Composition of Processes and Responsibility of
Coordination Agents (WMA)
Functional Enactment of Processes (Workflow
Paradigm)
Nonfunctional Enactment (Exception-handling,
synchronization, atomicity, performance, etc.)