Workflow Management

1
Workflow Management

• A new paradigm for organizing the working
  activities within enterprises.
• Intrinsically reactive
• Workflow managers monitor events and perform the
  required event management activities.
• Events are
• Internal - generated from within the workflow
  manager while workflows are progressing.
• External - representing the interaction of the
  workflow manager with the external world.

2
Events as Exceptions

• Most significant application of rules
• Expressing exceptions to the normal execution of
  workflows
• Example sudden unavailability of an agent who
  is performing an urgent task
• The task is assigned to the agents substitute

3
Example Internal Event
Sudden Unavailability of Agent performing an
urgent task, task is assigned to the agents
substitute (if available).
define trigger WF1 for Agent events modify(Agent
.Availability) condition Agent(A),
occurred(modify(Agent.Availability),A), A.Avail
ability FALSE, task(T), T.ResponsibleA, T.Ty
pe Urgent, Agent(B), A.Substitute
B, B.Availability TRUE actions modify(Task.R
esponsible, T, B) end
4
Example Exception
Car Rental Workflow - one of the companys cars
is damaged in an accident. The workflow system
creates a warning message that includes the
booking number and responsible agent, who will
find a substitute for the car and inform the
client
define trigger WF2 for Accident events create(Ac
cident) condition Accident(A),
occurred(create,A), Booking(B), B.Card
A.Damaged.Car, actions create(Warning,B.Number,
B.Agent,X)) end
5
Workflow Defined

• The automation of a business process, in whole or
  in part, during which documents, information, or
  tasks are passed from one participant to another
  for action, according to a set of procedural
  rules.
• Workflow Management Coalition

6
Workflow Management System (WfMS)

• A system that defines, creates, and manages the
  execution of workflows through the use of
  software, running on one or more workflow
  engines, which is able to interpret the process
  definition, interact with workflow participants,
  and where required, invoke the use of IT tools
  and applications.
• Workflow Management Coalition

7
High Level Architecture
Conger, Mike. The emergence of workflow
management in enterprise-class business
solutions. SunWorld, September 1999
8
Architecture

• Business Process Models - formal definition of
  the business process interpreted and executed by
  a workflow engines
• Business Cases - specific instances of a business
  process model
• Folders - group of documents and data,
  representing arbitrary combinations of data types
  used to process business cases
• Business Process Rules - govern overall
  processing of activities, including routing of
  requests, assignment/distribution of requests to
  designated roles, etc.
• Data - raw data, text, images, etc.

9
WfMS Reference Model
Workflow Management Coalition. The Workflow
Reference Model. The Workflow Management
coalition Specification, January 19, 1995.
10
WfMS Reference Model

• Process Definition Tools
• the means by which business process
  specifications can be defined
• specifies activities, associated data interchange
  requirements, relevant sequencing, routing
  instructions
• serves as a template to create specific instances
  of a business process
• used by workflow engines to control processing

11
WfMS Reference Model

• Administration and Monitoring
• workflow services, configuration, management, and
  control of overall workflow environment
• Example functions
• Establishment of users
• Assignment of work items
• Exception and error processing
• Event generation and notification
• Auditing
• Tracking and reporting of results
• Tracking and reporting of statistics
• Versioning and Change management

12
WfMS Reference Model

• Workflow Client Applications
• interact with WfMS to utilize workflow services
• interaction with workflow engine via an interface
  (worklist) and a queue of assigned work items
• Invoked Applications
• software application that is invoked by the
  workflow engine to perform processing
• synchronous or asynchronous

13
WfMS Reference Model

• Workflow Engines
• provide a runtime execution environment
• mange the overall processing and execution of
  workflow process instances
• Functions
• interpret business process specs
• create new process instances
• execute and manage instances
• navigate between work items
• manage/control workflow info
• route data between instances

14
WfMS Success Stories

• Schlumberger data management services help
  Italian utility to dramatically grow revenue
  stream
• 400 increase in customer base in 6 months
• http//www.wordsun.com/rms102.html
• Tennessee Value Authority(TVA) savings
• 52,693 manhours
• 42 operations costs savings
• 33 document revision work cost savings
• 2.2 million per year
• Rob Allen, Workflow In Introduction. Open Image
  Systems, Inc.