Workflow Management Systems and Interoperability

543 Pages·1998·20.693 MB·English

by  Ahmed Elmagarmid, Weimin Du (auth.), Asuman Doğaç, Leonid Kalinichenko, M. Tamer Özsu, Amit Sheth (eds.)

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Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences, Vol. 164
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Workflow Management Systems
and Interoperability
Edited by
Asuman
Doga~
Software Research and Development Center
Department of Computer Engineering
Middle East Technical University
TR-06531 Ankara, Turkey
Leonid Kalinichenko
Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute for Problems of Informatics
Vavilov Street 30/6
Moscow, V-334, 117900 Russia
M. Tamer
ÖZSU
Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2Hl
Amit Sheth
Director, Distributed Information Systems Laboratories
Department of Computer Science
University of Georgia
415 Graduate Studies Research Center
Athens, GA 30602-7404, USA
Springer
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute
on Workflow Management Systems (WFMS),
held in Istanbul, Turkey, August 12-21, 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
~orkflow management systems and interoperability I edited by Asuman
Dogae .,. let al.l.
p. en. -- (NATO ASI series. Series F, Conputer and systems
sc i enees : vo 1. 164)
·Proeeedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on ~orkflow
Management Systems (~FMS), held in Istanbul, Turkey, August 12-21,
1997"--T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-642-63786-5 ISBN 978-3-642-58908-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-58908-9
1. Management information systems--Congresses. 2. ~orkflow­
-Management--Congresses. 3. Production management--Data processing-
-Congresses. I. Dogac, Asuman, 1951- II. NATO Advaneed Study
Institute on Management Systems (1997: Istanbul,
~orkflow (~FMS)
Turkey) III. Series: NATO ASI series. Series F, Computer and
systems sciences : no. 164.
T58.6.~67 1998
658.5'4--DC21 98-26399
CIP
ACM Subject Classification (1998): H.4, J.6
ISBN 978-3-642-63786-5
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1998
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 1998
Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 1998
Typesetting: Camera-ready by authors/editors
Printed on acid-free paper
SPIN: 10648795 45/3142 - 5432 1 0
Preface
Workflow management systems (WFMS) are enjoying increasing popular
ity due to their ability to coordinate and streamline complex organizational
processes within organizations of all sizes. Organizational processes are de
scriptions of an organization's activities engineered to fulfill its mission such
as completing a business contract or satisfying a specific customer request.
Gaining control of these processes allows an organization to reengineer and
improve each process or adapt them to changing requirements. The goal of
WFMSs is to manage these organizational processes and coordinate their
execution.
The high degree of interest in WFMSs was demonstrated in the first half
of the 1990s by a significant increase in the number of commercial products
(once estimated to about 250) and the estimated market size (in combined
product sales and services) of about $2 billion in 1996. Ensuing maturity
is demonstrated by consolidations during the last year. Ranging from mere
e-mail based calendar tools and flow charting tools to very sophisticated inte
grated development environments for distributed enterprise-wide applications
and systems to support programming in the large, these products are finding
an eager market and opening up important research and development op
portunities. In spite of their early success in the market place, however, the
current generation of systems can benefit from further research and develop
ment, especially for increasingly complex and mission-critical applications.
Key deficiencies in current products include complexity in managing (in
stalling, using, and maintain) them, limited resilience to failures and limited
support for automatic recovery, lack of truly distributed architecture where
the system components including the workflow engine is distributed (with re
sulting limitations on scalability), and lack of adequate support for the highly
heterogeneous application environments where they are being deployed. Fur
thermore, these systems generally come up short in satisfying user expec
tations in areas such as data consistency, flexible worklist management and
history tracking, supporting mobile users, and providing advanced security
mechanisms.
A NATO Advanced Study Institute was organized to review and discuss
the current state of the art and recent developments in workflow systems, in
Istanbul, Turkey, during August 12-21, 1997. The ASI was organized around
four major themes as follows: The first part of the ASI introduced workflow
vi Preface
systems, presented the current state of the art as well as of the products,
standards, and research. Integration of workflow systems with collaboration
tools, scalable and dynamic coordination systems, and transactional support
for cooperative applications were also discussed in this part. The second part
of the ASI introduced the interoperability problem and presented an in-depth
treatment of the subject focusing on workflow systems.
Since workflow management systems unavoidably involve heterogeneous
information resources, one of the major problems they face is interoperabil
ity. In this respect a presentation provided the fundamentals of OMG's Ob
ject Management Architecture and CORBA. Interoperability in large-scale
distributed information delivery systems and semantic interoperation issues
along with workflow reuse were also addressed. The third part of the ASI
focused on using workflows through the Internet. Today, the public Internet
and corporate intranets have become the ubiquitous communication infras
tructure for developing and deploying distributed services on top of heteroge
neous computing platforms. In this part of the ASI, Internet-based workflow
systems were presented and the opportunities provided by Internet/intranet
technologies to enhance the capabilities of workflow systems were discussed.
In the fourth part of the ASI some special issues, like security in workflow
systems, reducing escalation costs in WFMS, and some recently developed
workflow systems prototypes, were presented.
The institute brought together 80 attendees from many countries. There
were 21 presentations and this book brings together the texts of these presen
tations. All of the papers have been edited extensively following the Institute.
We would like to express our gratitude to all the authors, who agreed to
revise their contributions based on the discussions during the Institute. We
would also like to mention the extraordinary work of the research assistants
in Turkey, namely, Esin Gokkoca, Pinar Karagoz, Pinar Koksal, and Nesime
Tatbul from the Software Research and Development Center of the Middle
East Technical University in the local organization of the Institute. The final
copy looks as nice as it does thanks to Pinar Koksal, Sena Arpinar, and
Pinar Karagoz. Finally we would like to thank NATO, Middle East Technical
University, and the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey for
their financial assistance.
April 1998 Asuman Dogac;
Leonid Kalinichenko
M. Tamer Ozsu
Amit Sheth
Table of Contents
Workflow Management: State of the Art
Versus State of the Products
Ahmed Elmagarmid, Weimin Du ................................. 1
1. Introduction ................................................ . 1
1.1 Background ............................................ . 1
1.2 Workflow Systems ....................................... . 2
2. Workflow Products .......................................... . 4
2.1 Current Status ......................................... . 4
2.2 Industry Trends ......................................... 8
3. Workflow Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 10
3.1 Transactional Workflow.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11
3.2 Distributed Workflow Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14
3.3 Dynamic Workflow ...................................... . 16
4. Conclusions ................................................ . 17
A Distributed Workflow and Product Data Management
Application for the Construction of Large Scale Scientific
Apparatus
R. McClatchey, J-M. Le Goff, N. Baker, W. Harris, Z. Kovacs. . . . . . .. 18
1. Introduction................................................. 18
2. Background................................................. 19
3. General Architecture and Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21
4. Data Distribution Philosophy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 25
5. Workflow Management in CRISTAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27
6. Workflow System Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28
7. Coping with Dynamic Change. . . . .. . . .. .. . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . .. 32
8. Conclusions and Project Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 33
viii Table of Contents
Workflow Applications to Research Agenda: Scalable and
Dynamic Work Coordination and Collaboration Systems
Amit Sheth, Krys J. Kochut. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 35
1. Introduction................................................. 35
2. Agenda for Current and Future Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 37
3. Application Driven Motivation and Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38
3.1 Scalability .............................................. 38
3.2 Adaptive and Dynamic Workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 41
3.3 Integral Support for Collaboration ......................... 43
4. METEOR WFMS and its Support for Scalability ............... 46
2
4.1 Workflow Design and Application Building in METEOR 47
2 • • • ••
4.2 The Runtime Code Generator ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 48
4.3 METEOR Runtime Support System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 48
2
4.4 The ORBWork Workflow Enactment System ..... . . . . . . . . . .. 49
4.5 Scalability of ORBWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 52
5. New Challenges to Support Dynamic and Collaborative Work. . . .. 53
5.1 Work Coordination and Collaboration System. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 54
5.2 WCCS Design ..................... '. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 55
5.3 WCCS Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 56
5.4 Work Coordination and Collaboration Engine ............... 58
6. Conclusions................................................. 59
Design and Implementation of a Distributed Workflow
Management System: METUFlow
Asuman Dogac, Esin Gokkoca, Sena Arpinar, Pinar Koksal,
Ibrahim Cingil, Budak Arpinar, Nesime Tatbul, Pinar Karagoz,
Ugur Halici, Mehmet Altinel ..................................... 61
1. Introduction................................................. 61
2. The Process Model and the METUFlow Definition Language:
MFDL ...................................................... 62
3. Guard Generation for Distributed Scheduling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
3.1 Semantics of the Block Types Using ACTA Formalism. . . . . . .. 67
3.2 Guard Construction Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 70
4. METUFlow Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 73
5. Guard Handlers in METUFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 75
6. Task Handling in METUFlow ................................. 78
7. Worklist Management in METUFlow. ..... .. .. ...... .. ....... .. 81
8. History Management in METUFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 83
9. OTS Based Transaction Manager .............................. 84
10. Correctness Issues in METUFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 86
10.1 Concurrency Control in METUFlow. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 87
10.2 Future Considerations for Concurrency Control in METUFlow. 90
11. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 91
Table of Contents ix
HP Workflow Research: Past, Present, and Future
Ming-Chien Shan, Jim Davis, Weimin Du, Ying Huang ... . . . . . . . . . .. 92
1. Introduction................................................. 92
2. Stage 1: Advanced Feature Enhancements.. . .. . . .. .. . . . .. . . . . . .. 92
3. Stage 2: Enterprise Business Process Management System. . . . . . . .. 93
3.1 The Requirements ....................................... 93
3.2 OpenPM Overview. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94
3.3 OpenPM Application Development Facilities ................ 101
3.4 An Application Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 102
4. Stage 3: Internet-Based Service Process Management System ...... 104
4.1 FlowJet Overview ....... " ............................... 105
Reducing Escalation-Related Costs in WFMSs
Euthimios Panagos, Michael Rabinovich ........................... 107
1. Introduction................................................. 107
2. System Model ............................................... 109
2.1 Wo!kflow Schema ........................................ 110
2.2 Deadlines and Escalations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 112
2.3 Assumptions ............................................ 112
3. Dynamic Deadline Adjustment (DDA) .......................... 113
4. Preemptive Escalation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 115
5. Experimental Evaluation ...................................... 117
5.1 Simulation Model ........................................ 117
5.2 Experimental Setup ...................................... 119
5.3 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 119
6. Related Work ............................................... 126
7. Conclusions ................................................. 127
The Workflow Management System Panta Rhei
Johann Eder, Herbert Groiss, Walter Liebhart .............. , ....... 129
1. Introduction................................................. 129
2. The Concepts of Panta Rhei ................................... 130
2.1 Classification of Workflows ................................ 130
2.2 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 131
2.3 Additional Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 132
2.4 Open Architecture ....................................... 133
3. Workflow Description Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 134
3.1 Workflow Specification .................................... 134
3.2 Execution of WDL ....................................... 139
4. Architecture and Implementation .............................. 141
5. Conclusions ................................................. 143
x Table of Contents
The WASA Approach to Workflow Management
for Scientific Applications
Gottfried Vossen, Mathias Weske ................................. 145
1. Introduction ................................................. 145
2. Workflow Modeling .......................................... 148
2.1 Workflow Modeling in Business Applications ................ 148
2.2 Workflow Modeling in Scientific Applications ................ 149
2.3 Case Study: Scientific Workflows in Molecular Biology ........ 150
3. Dynamic Change Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 153
3.1 Anticipated Dynamic Change .............................. 153
3.2 Ad-hoc Dynamic Change ................................. 154
3.3 Related Work on Dynamic Change ......................... 156
4. The WAS A Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 156
4.1 The WASA Layers ....................................... 156
5. The WASA Prototype ........................................ 159
5.1 General Considerations ................................... 160
5.2 System Architecture ...................................... 161
6. Conclusions and Future Work ................................. 164
Security Enforcement in Activity Management Systems
Kamalakar Karlapalem, Patrick C. K. Hung ........................ 165
1. Introduction ................................................. 165
1.1 Related Work ........................................... 167
2. Secure CapBasED-AMS ...................................... 168
2.1 Architecture of Secure CapBasED-AMS ..................... 170
3. Security Requirements for Activity Specification
and Decomposition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 172
3.1 Security Control in Activity Specification ................... 177
3.2 Security Constraints Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 178
4. Framework for Activity Execution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 179
4.1 Activity Graph .......................................... 179
4.2 ECA Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 180
4.3 Activity Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 183
4.4 Communication Between the Activity Coordinator and PSAs .. 185
4.5 Task and Event Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 186
4.6 Exception Condition Handling and Error Recovery . . . . . . . . . .. 186
5. Security Enforcement During Task Execution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 188
5.1 Security Policy Decider and Secure PSA .................... 188
5.2 Enforcement of Task Oriented Modeling of Security .......... 191
6. Open Problems and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 193