Development of a user interface generator for a workflow information system

Supervisor :Prof. Jean Vanderdonckt

Unité de Systèmes d’Information

Mémoire présenté en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître en Informatique par:

Miguel Moreno Roldán

Introduction (1)

Workfloweditors

Workflowmanagement

systems

Design time Run time

Commercial software offers an editor and an engine to execute the processes that run well together

There are other editors which allow us to detail better the business processes

The most common commercial workflow management systems do not support, for the most part, the behaviour of workflow resource patterns

Introduction (2)

FlowiXML editor Atoms

Petri nets workflow definition Limited UML state charts workflow definition

XML workflow definition splitted in models Single own XML workflow definition

Resources information can be exported User management can not be managed from its external environment

Workflow resource patterns definition allowed in task definition

No workflow resource patterns support

FlowiXML editor is the editor chosen because it fits the requirements of the workflow resource patterns

Atoms is the commercial software chosen because…

Introduction (3)

Problems to solve: From Petri nets to state charts

Split problem Atoms does not allow the synchronization bar definition

Representation of the workflow resource patterns Atoms does not allow the definition of patterns Atoms features does not allow the representation of the entire set of workflow resource

patterns Methodology:

Edit a workflow process in FlowiXML editor and generate the output Transform the processModel output of FlowiXML editor into an equivalent of

Atoms Transform the mappingModel output of FlowiXML editor into user interfaces

which work as if the pattern was applied Inform the workflow manager about everything impossible to represent to revise

it before its execution Execution of the process

Workflow resource patterns

Creation Push Pull Detour Auto-start

Direct allocation Distribution by offer single-resource

Resource-initiated allocation

Delegation Commencement on creation

Deferred allocation Distribution by offer multiple-resources

Resource-initiated execution-allocated task

Escalation Commencement on allocation

Authorization based Distribution by allocation single-resource

Resource-initiate execution-offered task

Deallocation Piled execution

Separation of duties Random allocation System determined agenda content

Stateful reallocation Chained execution

Case handling Round robin allocation Resource determined agenda content

Stateless reallocation

Retain familiar Shortest queue Selection autonomy Suspension / resumption

Capability-based allocation

Early distribution Skip

History-based allocation Distribution on enablement

Redo

Hierarchy level based Late distribution Pre-Do

Pattern transformation

Delegation pattern The ability for a resource to allocate a task previously allocated to it to another

resource Transformation

Technology used

This transformation has been developed using the next technologies: XML to define all information about the processes in both source and target

application XSL (XML Stylesheet Language) to read the output form FlowiXML editor and

transform it to be used in Atoms Java support to execute the XSL transformation

OUTPUTXML

FlowiXML editorXSL

JAVAPROCESSING

INPUTXML

Atoms

Four transformation sets (1)

Delegation / Reallocation

Stateful reallocation pattern The ability of a resource to allocate a task to another resource without loss of

state data No possibility to change the resource allocated when the task execution has

been started

Four transformation sets (2)

Redo

Redo pattern The ability for a resource to redo a task that has previously been completed in a

case This representation makes it possible

Four transformation sets (3)

Skip

Skip pattern The ability for a resource to skip a task allocated to it and to mark the task with a

finished status This representation makes it possible

Four transformation sets (4)

Direct allocation

Round robin allocation pattern The ability to allocate a task to available resources on a cyclic basis There are no features in Atoms that allows this kind of allocation

Case study - Definition

Case study – Transformation

Contribution

Conceptual contribution: Workflow resource patterns Pattern description and exemplification User interface modeling for each workflow resource pattern

Methodological contribution: Define a process using FlowiXML editor Export the process information Transform it using UIGenerator.xsl Import to Atoms

Proof-of-concept: A XSL transformation file called UIGenerator.xsl which reads the process

information defined in FlowiXML editor and transforms it to be used in Atoms

Future work

Implement the resource management in Atoms Provide it with different groups of users, making possible the allocation to

different resources using the user interfaces generated automatically

Study the patterns whose behaviour have not been possible to represent Study which patterns are; most popular, useful in the business world

Redo the transformation using a different target application Using a petri nets based workflow definition system, trying to find the support of

the majority of the workflow resource patterns

The transformation of the FlowiXML editor output to be used in a YAWL-supported system This would allow for perfect behavioural representation of the different patterns