Workflow Concepts and Techniques Hala Skaf-Molli Maître de Conférences Université de Nantes Hala.Skaf@univ-nantes.fr http://pagesperso.lina.univ-nantes.fr/~skaf-h
Workflow Concepts and Techniques General introduction to workflow systems BPMN (Business Process Modelling Notations) and Workflow control flow patterns Bonita Workflow System 2
Where to get more information? http://www.wfmc.org Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC): non-profit, International Organization of Workflow vendors, users and analysts.. Define standards for the workflow system Reference model 300 Members: Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Action Technology, DST Systems Inc, IBM, ILOG, SAP AG, NEC. 3
Where to get more information? Tutorials: Books Workflow and Workflow management system, P. Peretti (Altan Group), Globecom Rio de Janeiro 1999 Workflow Management in the Internet Age, C. Mohan (IBM Almaden Research Center), école dété objets répartis, Grenoble 1999. Production Workflow: Concepts and techniques, by F. Leymann (IBM) and D. Roller (IBM), Prentice Hall, 1999 Workflow management, Models, Methodes and Systems, Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee 2002 Workflow Technology in Computer supported Co-coperative Work, edited by Michel Beaudouin-Lafon On the Web4 www.w4.fr www.workflowcours.com http://www.wfmc.org 4
Business Process Procedures within an organization A sequence of activities performed by various persons, the visible result being various pieces of paper. Examples: loan process in a bank claims processing in an insurance company... Travel organization" 5
Workflow The automation of a business process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules (WFMC).. Ensure that the right work is done at the right time by the right people, in the right order. 6
Workflow We call the operational aspects of a business process-the sequence of tasks and who performs them, the information flow to support the tasks, and the tracking and reporting mechanisms that measure and control ( Mohan99 ) them-the workflow 7
( Wikipedia ) Workflow A workflow is a reliably repeatable pattern of activity enabled by a systematic organization of resources, defined roles and mass, energy and information flows, into a work process that can be documented and learned. Workflows are always designed to achieve processing intents of some sort, such as physical transformation, service provision, or information processing. 8
Instance Instance Processes and Workflow Real World Process Model Computer Workflow Model Process Workflow 9
Starting Point Business Process Reengineering at 1970 re-conception of enterprises processes Better performance Reducing the cost, execution time Better quality Be more productive, more attractive Zero paper.. Modeling, monitoring, optimization of enterprises processes 10
The idea Separate logical description of the process from its implementation In spirit of database systems: independence of data and programs.. 11
Workflow Management System A system that completely defines, manages and executes «workflow» through the execution of software whose order of execution is driven by a computer representation of the workflow logic [WFMC].. 12
Relevance of workflow management systems Trend: appl. Processes: appl. DBMS OS OS OS OS are becoming more important (BPR) are subject to frequent changes are becoming more complex UIMS appl. DBMS WFMS are increasing in number Workflow Management System UIMS appl. DBMS 1965-1975 1975-1985 1985-1995 1995-2010 From: www.workflowcourse.com 13
Applications Examples Every time individuals co-operate to achieve a common goal according to a predefined procedure workflow management is the appropriate tool. ( AVECOM ) Insurance policy/claims processing Loan request handling ( activities System administration (e.g. BDA ( Shield Healthcare claims (Empire Blue Cross Blue ( Microsoft ) Order management Travel expense approvals.. Technical documentation creation Quality management Concurrent Engineering 14
Geographical Distribution 15
Distribution by Industry (Source Survey BPI 2006) 16
Perceived value of BPM
Dimensions of Workflow Process Logic Three dimensions: Process Logic Which Activities? In which Order? IT Infrastructure Organization dimension Who? IT infrastructure.. What? 18
Business Logic Process Activities (Tasks) Control flow Data flow Conditions 19
Process Network of activities and their relationships Description the order of the execution of the activities to achieve common objective 20
Activity A logical, self-contained unit of work within the process. A step in the process, each: name, type, pre- and post-condition, input container and output container 21
Activité Activité automatique : une activité qui s'exécute sur un ordinateur et qui est entièrement contrôlée par le système de gestion de procédés Activité manuelle : une activité non automatisée qui reste en dehors du contrôle du système de gestion de procédés. 22
Activity Example Process: «order equipment» has 3 work steps: 1. Order entry 2. Credit check 3. Billing 1. manual; 2. manual; 3. automatic; 23
Control flow Activities are related to one another via flow control conditions (transition information). Each individual transition has three elementary properties: the from-activity, the to-activity and the condition under which the transition is made. 24
Activity and Flow Control AND Split single activity splits into two or more parallel activities.. AND Join parallel activities converges into single activity with synchronization.. OR join parallel activities converges into single activity without synchronization.. Or Split single activity makes a decision upon which branch to take when encountered with multiple branches start, end... 25
Fork activity A Activity and Flow Control B1 B2 Join activity C A B1 B2 C A B1 B2 C B3 Parallel Processing AND-split OR-split B3 Conditional Branching B3 Parallel Branching with final selection AND-join OR-join 26
Example: Make some coffee Start Start A. Fill the kettle (Remplir la bouilloire) A A B. Place coffee in cups B C B C. Heat the water C D D. Pour hot water on coffee D Finish A, B, C, D are activities Finish 27
Ex: Loan Request Handling Activities Collect Credit Information ( FF Assess Risk (amount <= 10 000 Request Approval (amount > 10 000 FF ( Risk or High Accept Credit Reject Credit 28
Control flow of activities 29
Control-flow Patterns (www.workflowpatterns.com) Capture aspect related to control-flow dependencies between various tasks (e.g. parallelism, choice, synchronization) Originally 22 patterns (See Second Lecture BPMN and Patterns) Basic Patterns: Sequence, Simple Merge, Synchronization,.. Advanced Branching and Synchronization Patterns (Multi-choice, multi-merge,.) 30
Data Flow Input Container List of typed variables used as an input for the activity Output Container List of typed variables resulted by the activity 31
Input/Output Containers Une activités lit ses données dans son conteneur d entrée et écrit ses résultats dans son conteneur de sortie Hala Skaf-Molli 32
Data Elements 33
Name Address Risk Amount Name Address Risk Amount Name Address Risk Amount Data flow 34
Data-flow Patterns (www.workflowpatterns.com) Dealing with passing of information, scoping of variables, etc.. Data visibilty Data interaction Data transfer Data-based routing 35
Dimensions of Workflow Process Logic IT Infrastructure Three dimensions: Process Logic Which Activities? In which Order? Organization dimension Who? IT infrastructure.. What? 36
Organizational Dimension The structure of the organization Intern Database Shared database with another tool A request about the persons associated with each activity a set of people of appropriate skill or responsibility Role. 37
Participant Un participant est une ressource qui réalise une instance d'activité. Le lien entre une instance d'activité et le participant qui la réalise s'établit lorsque ce participant choisit dans sa corbeille de bons de travail le bon de travail correspondant à cette instance d'activité Un participant est en général une personne (acteur), mais il peut aussi être une machine. Un participant peut être défini explicitement dans le procédé, mais en général, il est identifié par référence à un rôle 38
Role Basis for access control and execution control. The execution of activities is associated with roles rather than end-user => flexibility; handle exception.. Ex: Accept Credit is executed by the (-: administrator (not by Micheal Role: associated with an actor; a group of actors.. Ex: administrators; «send to all» 39
Unité organisationnelle Entreprise, département, groupe d individus compétent pour réaliser un ensemble d activités 40
Control flow of activities 41
Organization Metamodel 42
Organization Metamodel 1-n 1 1 1-n 1-n 1 1-n 1-n Organization Person Role 1-n 1 1 0-n 1 0-n Implemented by MQSeries Workflow.. level 43
Dimensions of Workflow Process Logic Three dimensions: Process Logic Which Activities? IT Infrastructure In which Order? Organization dimension Who? IT infrastructure What? 44
IT Dimension Programs that implement the activities OS Network Distributed or not?? Data bases access 45