WEDA – Web-based Design, Reuse, Documentation, and Execution of Agile Workflows

Workflow management systems are established software products that control the execution of business processes that are repeatedly executed in exactly the same manner over and over again. Due to the increasing competitive pressure, inflexible and immutable business processes became insufficient today. Enterprises must be able to respond fast and flexible when unexpected events occur. Individual control as well as the possibility to perform ad hoc changes of running processes are crucial to meet current business needs. Easy to use tools for process design and execution as well as high availability and scalability of these tools in the software cloud are essential to facilitate modern business process management. Remarkably, present commercial workflow systems are not able to fulfill these requirements.

The aim of this project is the development of a concept for a new and comprehensive agile workflow technology as “platform-as-a-service” (PaaS) in the software cloud which addresses the upcoming and increasing demands for individual control and flexibility of business processes. In order to facilitate the use of this agile workflow technology, new interactive graphical user interfaces are designed. In this context agile means that a workflow can be modified or even completely remodeled on demand after its execution has already started. A new intelligent decision support component will be developed that supports the users in performing goal-oriented modifications of workflows. For this purpose, methods from Artificial Intelligence (particularly Case-based Reasoning) are deployed. Repositories of best-practice workflows and past successful adaptations serve as experience knowledge, which is the basis to automatically derive useful suggestions for new workflows and workflow adaptation steps.

Using recent Web and Cloud technologies, the developed concept will be implemented as a highly interactive PaaS accessible using a standard Web browser. It will not only target business users but also non-commercial organizations, and private users. We will also aim at providing access via mobile devices such as Tablet PCs or Smartphones. Furthermore, an integration with social software like Facebook will allow us to investigate the anticipated synergy between a social networks and agile workflow technology.

This project is accompanied by three software companies from Rhineland-Palatinate (Attensity, bit-Informatik, sds-Bausoftware) to ease the future commercial exploitation of  the project’s results.

Funding

The WEDA project is funded by the Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation under grant no. 974 from June 2011 until March 2014.

Research team

Prof. Dr. Ralph Bergmann
PD Dr. Mirjam Minor
Dipl.-Wirt.-Inform. Sebastian Görg

Demonstrations

A goal of the WEDA project is to identify the challenges and requirements, if a traditional Workflow Management System is transformed in a cloud-based architecture. During this process, CAKE Mobile was developed, which enables to gather workflow relevant data via mobile devices such as smartphones. In this demo video it is shown how the construction manager is supported in her/his daily documentation on a construction area by using the CAKE system and its extension CAKE Mobile.

The demo video is here available.

If you want to try-out the CakeFlow system, click here.

(Kopie 2)

Publications

Here you find the publications, which evolved during the WEDA project.

Student based research

Some results of the WEDA project lead to questions, which are investigated in the scope of Bachelor-/Mastertheses or research courses. In this manner current research is directly linked to the teaching of the Department of Business Information Systems II and the students are going to be prepared for current requirements in research and economy.

Mastertheses

  • Service-Invocation for Social Workflows. Integration REST-basierter Webdienste in ein Social-Workflow-Management-System - Fabian Girgert

  • Concept and implementation of a resource sharing and managing model for cloud-based Workflow Management Systems - Stefan Müller

  • Creation of adaptation knowledge for case-based adaptation of workflows - Stephan Zonker

  • Modelling conditions of the control flow in cloud-based workflow management systems - Pierre Patrick Kendzo
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Research courses

  • Application scenarios and online services for personal workflows in social networks: a exploratory study - Stefan Müller

  • Analysis of a Workflow Management Systems for social workflows - Tonio Kröner & Hai Ngoc Cu

  • RESTful Service Composition for Social Workflows - Folke Aechtner & Li Sheng

WEDA – Web-based Design, Reuse, Documentation, and Execution of Agile Workflows

Workflow management systems are established software products that control the execution of business processes that are repeatedly executed in exactly the same manner over and over again. Due to the increasing competitive pressure, inflexible and immutable business processes became insufficient today. Enterprises must be able to respond fast and flexible when unexpected events occur. Individual control as well as the possibility to perform ad hoc changes of running processes are crucial to meet current business needs. Easy to use interfaces and high availability and scalability of the backend systems in the software cloud are essential to facilitate modern business process management. Remarkably, present commercial workflow systems are not able to fulfill these requirements.

The aim of this project is the development of a concept for a new and comprehensive agile workflow technology as “platform-as-a-service” (PaaS) in the software cloud which addresses the upcoming and increasing demands for individual control and flexibility of business processes. In order to facilitate the use of this agile workflow technology, new interactive graphical user interfaces are designed. In this context agile means that a workflow can be modified or even completely remodeled on demand after its execution has already started. A new intelligent decision support component will be developed that supports the users in performing goal-oriented modifications of workflows. For this purpose, methods from Artificial Intelligence (particularly Case-based Reasoning) are deployed. Repositories of best-practice workflows and past successful adaptations serve as experience knowledge, which is the basis to automatically derive useful suggestions for new workflows and workflow adaptation steps.

Using recent Web and Cloud technologies, the developed concept will be implemented as a highly interactive PaaS accessible using a standard Web browser. It will not only target business users but also non-commercial organizations, and private users. We will also aim at providing access via mobile devices such as Tablet PCs or Smartphones. Furthermore, an integration with social software like Facebook will allow us to investigate the anticipated synergy between a social networks and agile workflow technology.

This project is accompanied by three software companies from Rhineland-Palatinate (Attensity, bit-Informatik, sds-Bausoftware) to ease the future commercial exploitation of  the project’s results.