Workflow and Process Management (WPM)

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Workflow and Process Management (WPM)
David Ding Management Department David Eccles
School of Business, University of Utah
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Agenda

1. Research Commentary Workflow Management Issues
   in e-Business
2. Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
   Process Models Probabilistic and Algorithmic
   Approaches
3. Tools for Inventing Organizations Towards a
   Handbook of Organizational Process
4. Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls in
   Workflow Management Systems

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Traditional industry based
Information-based (Tangible goods)
( Information flow
through the value chain)
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Purpose 1st. Provide a perspective for workflow
management. 2nd. Identify promising directions
for future research.
Framework and road map
Inter
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Intraorganizational Workflows
• 3 views of workflows management (general to
  specific)
• Tasks executed by various resources in a value
  system
• Automation of business process, information
  transferred
• Characteristics of Predictability, Repeatable,
  Distributed, Automation, Idling.

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Specification and Modeling
• Workflow Components Process model, task, work
  case, resource, role, data elements, state
  information, and constraints
• Specification Key issues Task definition, task
  coordination, correctness of execution
  requirements.
• Modeling Approach Petri.nets, ICN(Information
  Control Nets, ActionWorkflow formalism,
• 200 products on the markets are implementing
  various models due to the diversity of above
  approach to modeling

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Q How to translate between models ?
S A unifying model that can integrate
heterogeneous models
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Organizational Modeling of Workflows Organization
al awareness is required for a fit between work
practice and the model/mechanism used by the
workflow management system. Or integration of
workflow models with organizational
models Organization Model Represents a logical
hierarchy of roles that performed in the
organization. Reflects organization structure,
include separation of duties, and integrate work
on delegation with security.
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Workflow Analysis, monitoring and control
Structural analysis Analyze the structure of
processes and workflows during the design phase.
Comprised of Validation Test semantic
completeness for predicting workflows in all
scenarios, by interactive simulation Verification
Establish the syntactic correctness and
eliminate redundancies, by checking for
correctness Data usage analysis Analyze patterns
of data, prevent errors, by introducing the
notion of transactions Gap Verifying the context
of workflows is required
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Distributed and Interorganizational Workflows
• Multiple, Widely spread locations for single
  process
• Incompatibility of workflows systems
• Multiple organizational units for single process

Petri-nets
Introduce a mechanism to transfer data across the
boundary
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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Distributed and Interorganizational Workflows
• Restructuring workflow in distributed settings
• Q Inconsistency and duplication for lacking of
  transparency across or boundaries
• S Mapping disparate workflow models into one
  another
• Q Task is delegated dynamically
• S Dynamically allocation of tasks to servers

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Workflow issues in e-Business
• 1st. Integrating ERP Applications with Supply
  Chains
• Q 1 Design and optimization of e - supply chain
• Develop analytical tools for verification and
  validation of composite workflows
• Q2 How to Workflow-enable existing ERP
• ERP transaction driven, structured data
• Workflow process based, unstructured data

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Workflow issues in e-Business

• 2nd. B2B Exchanges and e-Hubs
• Q3 Design of a distribution channel based on
  e-hub
• Work out the details of information flows between
  various entities and the data structures for the
  shared information
• Q4 Mapping information and rules correctly
• Develop techniques for ensuring semantic
  integrity of the information and rules for
  mapping correctly
• Q5 Build complex workflows using B-2-B exchange

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business
Workflow issues in e-Business

• 3rd. E-Service Composition
• Q6 Define the composition of plug-and-play
  services
• Q7 Make sure the individual services interact
  with each other
• Q7 Design better metamodels and build interface
  with intelligent systems to accommodate exception
  to normal conditions
• Q8 Develop a comprehensive model to standardize
  e-Business

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Workflow Management Issues in e-Business

• Contribution
• Identify promising areas for further research
• Specification of interorganizational workflow
• Design of better organizational metamodel
• Support for exception
• Development of standards to facilitate
  interorganizational e-commerce

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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models Probabilistic and Algorithmic
Approaches
Assumption Discussion
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
CLUE Q Previous works on BPR and WM assume
that AS-IS process models are known prior to
reengineering. Gap AS-IS process models are
very difficult to extract S A number of
algorithms are postulated to discover, and come
up with models of AS-IS business processes. Such
methods have been implemented as tools which can
automatically extract AS-IS process models.
Traces of process behavior are recorded and a
formal model of the process that account for the
behavior is extracted.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
BP components Agent, event, activity, state,
process activity graph(PAG), and process path.
Fig 1. Process Activity Graph (PAG)
Process PUS
Monitor S2, technician S3.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models

• Non-trivial
• PAG represents the activity flows of a BP
  model, and is a critical component of BP model.
• Given a PAG for a process, control flow in the
  process will be able to be identified.
• Basic intuition
• Experience and record a process by keeping a log
  of the events.
• Frequently recur patterns present true process
  behavior.
• Probabilistic and algorithmic strategies in
  Finite State Machine (FSM) are applied to extract
  PAGs from organizational behavior traces.

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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Examine the activity
stream of a BP, use stochastic process modeling
techniques to find the most probable activity
sequence. 1st. The nth order activity-sequence
probability matrix is constructed 2nd. The
activity graph (AG) is drawn from the probability
matrix 3rd. Repetitive edges in AG are eliminated
and all the remaining edges are newly and
uniquely labeled 4th. AG is converted into it
dual, AG 5th. AG is converted into the final
Process Activity Graph for the BP by taking away
illegal edges
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Example
Example Reserve Equipment (ResEqp) Get-E-Request(
P), Check-E-Available(Q), Reserve-E(R),
Check-E-Unavailable(S), Waitlist-E-Request(T)
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Example
1st. The nth order activity-sequence probability
matrix Column 2-activity sequence Row
activities Number probabilities of each future
activity occurrence after each 2-activity
sequence. N length of the history choosing to
characterize futures
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Example 2nd. The
activity graph (AG) is drawn from the probability
matrix by setting threshold probability 3rd.
Repetitive edges in AG are eliminated
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Example 4th. AG is
converted into it dual, AG S1 to S11 correspond
to each edge in AG
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Probabilistic Strategy Example 5th. AG is
converted into the final Process Activity Graph
for the BP by taking away illegal edges

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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
The Algorithmic Strategy Extract a model of BP
process algorithmically from a sample. B-F
algorithm Any state of a process is defined by
what future behaviors can occur from it.
Equivalence Classes Two histories belong to
same equivalence level if they have the same
future identity.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
B-F(k) Algorithm Define a set of equivalence
classes that represent the status of the
resultant PAG for the process. Merge-state
merge states have same output activities.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
B-F(k,c) Algorithm C Confidence factor as a
threshold for histories.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
Comparison among three Strategies Metric 1
Number of correct process paths created Metric 2
Number of incorrect process generated Metric 3
Number of states exist in the final PAG.
Results Probabilistic Model 11 states, noisy
sequence (partially avoided with threshold
probability factor) B-F(k) Strategy 8 states,
noisy sequence (semantically correct) The
B-F(K,c) Strategy 7 states, avoid redundant and
loops and paths that do not occur frequently
enough in the activity stream.
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
Case Study
Provide Computer Support (PCS) 1st. Extract a
process model of this BP by conventional model.
2nd. Extract PAGs for the BP using each of the
three strategies. Comparison 1. Probabilistic
Strategy 21 states, captures all the repeated
sequences in AS1 Redundancy without merge
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
Case Study
2. B-F(k) PAG 19 states, same paths as 1 Single
activity stream, missing sequence or paths
3. B-F(k,c) PAG 23 states, captures more paths
and A-B-D-G-I-Q-R, merge for minimal states to
capture possible paths, consequence factor for
equally probable futures. Closet and most
complete PAG of a given process
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Automating the Discovery of AS-IS Business
Process Models
Contribution Practical Postulates a number of
systematic procedures to extract AS-IS process
model. Theoretical Recognize the commonality
between grammar discovery problem and the BP
discovery problem. First to look at automating
BP discovery. Future work Pursue ways of refining
algorithms to discover control flows
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Tools for Inventing Organizations Towards a
Handbook of Organizational Process
OUTLINE Gap Need to innovate but lack the tool
for doing so. A novel theoretical and empirical
approach to tasks such as business process
redesign and knowledge management is proposed.
Goal Provide a proof of concept that such a
handbook are both technically feasible and
managerially useful.
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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Challenge
• How to recognize and represent organizational
  processes?
• Flow charts and data-flow diagrams, Petri nets,
  and goal-based model
• How to do this better?
• Analyzing and representing process with
  representation of similarity
• Notions of specialization of processes
• Managing dependencies

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Specialization of Processes
• Breaking a process into different parts
• Differentiating a process into its different
  types
• Activities be arranged into an interconnected
  2D network

Sell how?
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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook
Bundles Alternative specializations are
comparable in same bundle
Sell what?
Sell how?
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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Dependencies and Coordination
• Coordination defined as managing dependencies
  among activities
• Ubiquitous and variable coordination processes
  offer special leverage for redesigning processes.

Three dependencies among activities
Dependencies and coordination mechanism for
managing them
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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Specialization and Decomposition of Dependencies
• Some dependencies are specializations or being
  composed of others
• Managing three dependencies amounts to having
• Right Thing, at
• Right Time, and in
• Right Place.
• Each dependencies has different processes for
  managing it

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Related works
• Organization Theory and Design
• Classification, identifying alternatives,
  improvements
• Importance of coordination in organizational
  design
• Useful ways of organizing knowledge
• Computer Science
• Process Handbook uses both process
  specialization and dependencies with coordination
  mechanisms to generate and organize examples
• Goal difference Build systems to help people
  design and carry out processes, or support
  human-decision-makers

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook
Discussion Build computer systems to help people
design and carry out processes
Build computer systems and use them to design and
carry out process
VS
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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Process Handbook
• VB based
• Web user Interfaced (activities description,
  links, views of specializations and
  decompositions, automated support for inheritance
  and dependencies)
• Information Contended (examples from
  organizations and generic business processes)
• Top down and bottom up structured

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Process Handbook Example
• Firm A
• Experiencing problems with hiring process, who
  have invested into as is process analysis using
  conventional techniques.
• Specification enables richer ways of indexing
  example pools
• Analyzing hiring process from a coordination
  point of view, quickly identifying ways for
  managing the sharing dependency
• Passed through a doorway where all sorts of
  things that have never imagined before now seemed
  possible.

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Discussion
• Advantages
• 1st. Using a specialization hierarchy in
  combination with explicitly representation of
  coordination and dependencies, supports a rapid
  assessment of basic features of a process
• 2nd. The specialization hierarchy provided a
  powerful framework for generating new process
  ideas
• 3rd. Process-oriented , distinguish process
  with organizational structure or roles of
  particular people.
• Identifying new ways of doing old tasks and
  managing connected process that span
  organizational boundaries

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Discussion
• Disadvantages
• 1st. Statistic process representation is more
  stable and routine than most business process
  actually are,
• 2nd. Explicitly representations of process will
  be interpreted by subjected too rigidly, should
  be a source.

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Tools for Inventing Organizations A Handbook

• Contribution
• Take advantage of human abilities to analyze,
  organize, and communicate knowledge
• Approach depends on the quality and amount of
  human intelligence applied to the problem of
  generating and organizing knowledge in the system
  
• The Handbook has an advantage over more formal
  approaches with allowing multiple alternatives
  coexist in the system.

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Time for BREAK!
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls in
Workflow Management Systems
OUTLINE Gap A need to address the authorization,
control issues, and handle exceptions in WMS.
Goal Develop a framework for managing
workflows in an efficient and orderly manner with
maximal degrees of flexibility.
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Framework Conceptions
• Document, worker, role, task.
• Field Data element contained in a document that
  has a numerical or symbolic value
• Work basket A stack of documents waiting to be
  processed
• Sequence dependency Two tasks that must be
  performed by different roles in a given sequence
  create a sequence dependency

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• System Architecture
• Control table for integrity
• (specific operations for a given role)
  Restriction on the kinds of operation
• Sequence constraints for proper routing
• Impose dependencies between tasks
• Event-based rules for additional controls and
  exceptions
• Trigger special actions to tale place

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Framework Cond
• Work flow tables specify authorizations for
  access
• Sequence constraints specify order for access,
  which override work flow table
• Event-based rules supersede above two and
  represents a more sophisticated means of managing
  the workflow and handling special situations.

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
Workflow Control Tables Control 1st. Limit the
operations performed to access and modify the
documents, namely read/write operations Control
2nd. Operations to monitor and change the status
of a document, namely status change operations
Permission/authorizations decreases at a lower
level
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
Workflow Control Tables
Attract attention to a problem situation and
initiate special handling
Cancels a document but it still exists in system
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Workflow Sequence Constraints
• Objective in this paper support flexible
  routing by providing a routing scheme (the
  specification of routing paths that a workflow is
  required to follow) consisting of a set of
  sequence constraints (which specifies the rules
  that a document routing should observe so that
  the business procedures are not validated)to
  describe a business process.

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Workflow Sequence Constraints
• PCL (Process Constraint Language)
• Events Action that considered relevant in a
  process involving routing of a workflow
  (Origin-S, freeze-E)
• Precedence Sequential relationships between
  events
• (Follow once, each, immediate, and not)
• Clusters
• PARA (parallel) (e1, e2, , en)m independent
• SEQ (sequential) (e1, e2, , en)m dependent

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
Workflow Sequence Constraints PCL Language VS
Petri Nets
Origin Target
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
Workflow Sequence Constraints PCL Language VS
Petri Nets PCL not only represents the
constraints that apply to the routing scheme, but
also permit those not specifically prohibited. PN
is superior for graphical representation.
Constraint verification and enforcement Enforce
the partial ordering defined by sequence
constraints and refuse routing paths that are not
legitimate.
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Event-Based Workflow Management Rules
• Gap Operations cannot be supported by former two
  constraints because they cannot express events
  and conditions
• Employing in
• Supporting sophistic routings on complex
  conditions
• Monitoring quality and efficiency of operations
• Prohibiting unauthorized operations (Control
  Rules)
• Carrying out automatic operations (Operations
  Rules)
• Handling exceptions Rules

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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Event-Based Workflow Management Rules
• Rule management systems components
• Ensuring consistency, disallowing non-functional
  rules
• Indexing of rules
• Conflict resolution among multiple candidate
  rules

Each rule is identified by its id An event is
specified in the ON clause Any role or a set of
rules Specifies the document Logical literals
with AND and OR operators System-defined
operations or routing actions
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
CASE Studies CFG, managing personal loans, two
weeks response time Need a workflow management to
improve efficiency
Enter Classify, check Income, credit, outstanding
loan Decision on r3r5, r4 Underwriter Customer
decides to resume, finalize
Sequence constraints
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls
CASE Studies
Manager wishes to find out all applications in
process for more than 10 days
When a customer decides to withdraw, the system
aborts the application automatically
When a customer decides to withdraw, the system
rejects any subsequently updates after aborting
the application
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Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls

• Contribution
• Release managers from certain routine and
  micro-level management activities, give them more
  time for making business decisions.
• Emphasizes dynamic routing and is based on
  various tasks to be performed, and then imposing
  a minimal set of consequence constraints on the
  tasks.
• Maximize the alternative routes that a document
  may take and increases parallelism without
  sacrificing accuracy.

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