Logic-based Modeling Analysis, and Implementation of Workflow Management Systems

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A workflow is a collection of cooperating, coordinated activities designed to carry out a well-defined complex process, such as trip planning, graduate student registration procedure, or a business process in a large enterprise. A human, a device, or a program might perform an activity in a workflow. Workflow management systems (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. Automated workflow management is becoming increasingly important, as it is one of the enabling technologies for business-to-business e-commerce. Ideally, a WfMS should be able to help the user in analyzing and reasoning about complex business processes. Unfortunately, present-day systems do not provide sufficient support for this activity and the virtual lack of analysis and reasoning facilities in current workflow management systems is considered a serious problem. To tackle this problem, a formal specification model with a well-defined semantics is needed. The objective of this project is to conduct research in workflow management and to develop a robust and expressive model for dynamic workflows (i.e., workflows where tasks and their interrelationships change over time) as well as a technological infrastructure (prototypes) for implementing verifiable workflow management systems. The techniques will be validated in the area of supply chain management in collaboration with industry partners. The research is expected to result in the development and distribution of an open source tool for building and managing dynamic workflows. Relevant links:http://xsb.sourceforge.net/http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~lmc/http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~workflow/