DATABASE SUPPORT FOR WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT The WIDE Project THE KLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DATABASESUPPORTFOR WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT The WIDE Project Editors: Paul Grefen University ofTwente Barbara Pernici Politecnico di Milano Gabriel Sanchez Sema Group sae Assistant editors: Jochem Vonk Erik Boertjes University ofTwente .... " SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC ISBN 978-1-4613-7355-1 ISBN 978-1-4615-5171-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-5171-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Copyright © 1999 by Springer Science+Business Media New York Origina11y published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999 Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1999 AII rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any fonn or by any means, mechanical, photo copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written pennission of the publisher, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List ofAuthors xi Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv PART ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE WIDE PROJECT 1 Workflow Management and Database Technology 3 PaulGrefen andPeterApers 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Stateoftheartindatabasetechnology 4 1.2.1 Transactionmanagement 5 1.2.2 Activerulesupport 6 1.3 Stateoftheartin workflowmanagement 6 1.3.1 Functional perspective 7 1.3.2 Technicalperspective 7 1.3.3 Commercial situation 8 1.4 Requirements tonext-generation workflowmanagementsystems 8 1.5 Usingdatabasetechnologyfor workflowmanagement 9 1.6 Structureofthisbook 10 1.7 References 10 2 TheWIDE Approach to Workflow Management 13 PaulGrefen. Stefano Ceri.BarbaraPernici. GabrielSanchez. PeterApers. Len Winfield. Marien Krijger. andCarlosLopez 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 TheWIDEproject 13 2.2.1 Goalsandapproach oftheWIDEproject 14 2.2.2 Partnersin theWIDEconsortium 15 2.2.3 WIDEprojectandbookstructure 16 2.3 Extendingdatabasetechnology 17 2.4 Couplingdatabasetechnologytoworkflowsupport 18 2.5 Workflowmodelinganddesign 19 2.6 References 20 v vi PARTTwo: THE WIDE WORKFLOW MODEL 3 Conceptual Workflow Model 23 Fabio Casati, BarbaraPernici, GiuseppePozzi, GabrielSanchez, andJochem Vonk 3.1 Introduction 23 3.2 Processmodel 24 3.2.1 Tasks 24 3.2.2 Connectors 26 3.2.3 Startand stopsymbols 27 3.2.4 WAITtasks 27 3.2.5 Multitasks 28 3.2.6 Subprocesses, supertasks, and businesstransactions 29 3.2.7 Termination ofcases 29 3.3 Information model 30 3.3.1 Information variables 30 3.3.2 Documentationelements 31 3.3.3 Modeling temporal information 31 3.4 Organization model 32 3.4.1 Themodel 33 3.4.2 Agentidentification in thesystem 35 3.4.3 Keyagentsin aWFMS 36 3.4.4 Taskassignment modes 36 3.4.5 Taskassignmentprocess 37 3.5 Transaction model 38 3.5.1 Staticprocessstructure 38 3.5.2 Dynamicprocessexecution 40 3.5.3 Requirements analysis 40 3.6 Exception model 41 3.7 Acasestudy: Global Travel International 43 3.8 References 45 4 Workflow Design Methodology 47 LucianoBaresi, Fabio Casati, Silvana Castano, MariagraziaFugini, PaulGrefen, IsabelleMirbel, BarbaraPernici, andGiuseppePozzi 4.1 Introduction 47 4.2 Businessprocess pre-analysis 50 4.2.1 Functional perspective 51 4.2.2 Organizationalperspective 54 4.2.3 Businessperspective 55 4.3 Workflowanalysis 56 4.3.1 Identification ofcandidateworkflows 57 4.3.2 Identification ofpre/postconditions and goals 59 4.3.3 Summary 60 vii 4.4 Designphase 60 4.4.1 Designingthedecomposition ofworkflows 61 4.4.2 Designingexceptions 64 4.4.3 Designingtransactions 67 4.4.4 Identifyingbusinesstransactions 69 4.4.5 Designingcompensatingtransactions 74 4.4.6 Designingbusinesstransactions 75 4.4.7 Designinginteractionswith external systems 76 4.5 Mappingphase 78 4.5.1 Mapping theprocessmodel 79 4.5.2 Mappingexceptions 82 4.5.3 Mappingoftransactions 92 4.6 References 93 PARTTHREE: THE WIDE WORKFLOW SYSTEM 5 Data Support 97 CarlosLopez, GabrielSimchez, andMiryam Villegas 5.1 Introduction 97 5.2 Approach todatasupport 97 5.2.1 TheCOREAstandardand distribution 98 5.2.2 ObjectOrientedmappingtorelationaldata 98 5.3 Objectsupport 99 5.3.1 Objectidentifiers 99 5.3.2 Mappingtorelationalconcepts 99 5.4 Distribution support 107 5.4.1 TheBasicAccessLayer 107 5.4.2 Generation ofpersistentC++classes 109 5.5 Conclusions 112 5.6 References 112 6 Transaction Support 115 ErikBoertjes, Jochem Vonk, PaulGrefen, andPeterApers 6.1 Introduction 115 6.2 Transactionmodel 115 6.2.1 Mapping processmodel totransaction model 116 6.2.2 Comparisontorelated work 118 6.2.2 Discussion oftheWIDEapproach 119 6.3 Global transaction support 120 6.3.1 Functionaldescription oftheGTS 120 6.3.2 Specification andexecution graphs 121 6.3.3 Compensation 122 6.3.4 Compensation algorithm 122 viii 6.4 LocalTransaction support 126 6.4.1 Atomicitycontrol 126 6.4.2 Isolation control 128 6.4.3 Mapping toDBMS specific transaction commands 129 6.4.4 Channel management 129 6.5 Transaction supportarchitecture 130 6.5.1 Overall architecture 130 6.5.2 GTS architectureand implementation issues 130 6.5.3 LTS architectureand implementation 134 6.6 Conclusions 137 6.7 References 138 7 Active Rule Support 141 Fabio Casati, Stefano Ceri, Stefano Paraboschi, andGiuseppePozzi 7.1 Introduction 141 7.1.1 Previousrelated work 143 7.1.2 Outlineofthechapter 143 7.2 Specification oftheChimera-Exc language 143 7.2.1 Classdefinitions for Chimera-Exc 143 7.2.2 Events 145 7.2.3 Conditions 148 7.2.4 Actions 150 7.2.5 Global vs. schema-specific triggers 152 7.2.6 Priorities amongexceptions 153 7.2.7 Triggermanagement primitives 153 7.2.8 Examples 153 7.3 Ruleexecution: thearchitecture 157 7.3.1 ComponentsoftheFARarchitecture 158 7.3.2 Transactional requirementsfor FAR 162 7.3.3 Oracletriggers 163 7.3.4 Intermediate language 164 7.4 Acomparison ofChimerawithChimera-Exc 166 7.5 Conclusions 167 7.6 References 168 8 Workflow Support 169 GabrielSimchez, Miryam Villegas, andCarlosLopez 8.1 Introduction 169 8.2 Caseand taskobjects 170 8.2.1 Thecaseobject 171 8.2.2 Thetaskobject 171 8.3 Workflowinterpreter 172 8.3.1 Usagescenario 174 ix 8.4 WorkflowScheduler 176 8.4.1 Assignmentprocess 177 8.4.2 Whathappens ifallfails? 178 8.5 Workflowclient 178 8.5.1 Theprocessdesign tool 178 8.5.2 Themappingtool 180 8.5.3 Thecreation ofnewcasestool 181 8.5.4 Thedesktoptool 181 8.5.5 Themonitoring tool 182 8.5.6 Thestatisticstool 182 8.6 Relation between FOROandWIDE 183 8.7 References 183 PART FOUR: WIDE ApPLICATIONS 9 Medical InsuranceApplication 187 PaulEertinkandMauritsCieremans 9.1 Introduction 187 9.2 Applicationmodel 188 9.2.1 Theorganizationprocessingnewapplications 188 9.2.2 ProcessofhandlingMedical InsuranceApplications 188 9.2.3 Graphical representationoftheprocess 190 9.3 Useofadvancedfeatures 190 9.3.1 Extendedtransactions 192 9.3.2 Activerules 193 9.4 Advantagesovertraditional workflowsystems 194 9.4.1 Extendedtransactions 194 9.4.2 Activerules 195 9.5 Conclusionsand worktobedone 196 10 Short-Stay Surgery 199 SalvadorGuillen andLen Winfield 10.1 Introduction 199 10.2 Applicationmodel 199 10.2.1Theorganizationcontext: Areyou readyfor workflow? 200 10.2.2TheShort-StaySurgeryprocess 201 10.3 Useofadvancedfeatures 207 10.3.1ModularWFconstruction 207 10.3.2Extendedorganizationmodel 207 10.3.3Triggers 208 10.3.4Businesstransactions 209 10.3.5Standardworkflowtemplates 211 10.3.6Workflowautomation 211 10.4 Conclusions 212 10.5 References 214 x Concluding Remarks 215 PaulGrefen, BarbaraPernici. GabrielSanchez Stefano Ceri, andPeterApers ApPENDICES A WIDEWPDL 221 GabrielSanchezandMiryam Villegas Al Introduction 221 A2TheWPDLgrammar: basicstructures 222 A2.1 Grammarandlanguageconstructs 222 A3 WIDEWPDL: processandentitiesdefinitions 226 A3.1 Workflowentities 226 A3.2 Transitiondefinition 229 A2.3 Chimeraexceptionsdefinition 229 B Details Global Travel International 235 Fabio Casati, BarbaraPernici, andJochem Vonk B.1 Introduction 235 B.2 Processmodeldefinition 235 B.3 Informationmodeldefinition 241 C Details Medical Insurance Application 245 PaulEertinkandMauritsCieremans C.l Introduction 245 C.2 Information model definition 245 C.3 Workflowdefinition 246 D Details Short-Stay Surgery Application 253 SalvadorGuillen andLen Winfield D.1 Introduction 253 D.2 Triggers 254 D.3 Businesstransactions 254 D.4 Informationmodels 255 D.5 Workflowdefinition 259 E WIDE Publications 271 E.1 Conferencepapers 271 E.2 Journal papers 272 E.3 Magazinepapers 272 E.4 Technicalreports 273 E.5 WIDE newsletters 273 Index 275