Draft for AKT July Workshop
Jessica Chen-Burger
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
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Current Work
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Continue development of the Fundamental
Business Process Modelling Language
(FBPML) and its formal representation,
including extension on execution semantics that
conventional BPM lacks
Design the architecture of a generic componentand agent-based workflow system shell that
suits most e-business workflows
Implement a generic workflow system shell
Survey relevant business process modelling and
workflow methods
Investigate problems and discover
opportunities in the domain of e-business
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
2
Previous Work :
Enterprise Modelling
• Investigate and propose how different types of
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enterprise models may be combined in use to support
business operations and system design
Investigate and propose how different enterprise
models may be used together to provide input for
business system development
Investigate and propose ways to improve knowledge
sharing between different enterprise models
Investigate and propose ways to ensure the
consistency of knowledge captured in different
enterprise models
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
3
Previous Work:
Business Process Modelling
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Developing the FBPML that is a BPML
that
– may be used by business personnel without much
help from IT: i.e. visual, intuitive that allows informal
description
– may be used by software engineering: i.e. formal,
precise, accurate that has execution semantics for
WFS
– is core to all business process modelling and is
coherent to state of the art methods in the field
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Developing a generic methodology for
building BPMs
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
4
Points for Forward Work:
Problems and Opportunities in E-Business
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There is an increasing demand for knowledge-based
workflow systems that has its own objectives and knows
business rules, procedures, rationale and can make
business decisions and carry out work autonomously
In e-business, workflow system must be able to
communicate, negotiate, make decisions and do deals
autonomously
Conventional workflow system that is one big system is
no longer suitable, but should be component- and/or
agent-based that is flexible and can react to changes
quickly
Workflow systems must enable and support frequent
change of business procedures while maintain stability of
business operations
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
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Virtual Organisations with
Workflow Systems
Intelligent
Agent - 2
Intelligent
Agent - n
Internal
Broker Y
Internal
Broker X
Intelligent
Agent - m
Workflow
System - 2
Workflow
System - 1
Broker
Process
Model - 1
Intelligent
Agent - 1
Intelligent
Agent – 2a
Constraint
Solver - 1
Organisation A
Process
Model - 2
Intelligent
Agent – 1a
Constraint
Solver - 2
Organisation B
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
6
Possible Future Work:
Towards a Distributed Environment
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Extension on direct mapping between BPMs and
workflow systems (WFS)
Extension on dynamic generation of business processes
and workflows while maintain the stability of WFS
Extension of purpose-driven knowledge-based
visualisation techniques
Reconcile and formalise shared communication patterns
between workflow systems and agents, e.g. using XML,
RDF, ebXML
Knowledge based workflow systems: autonomous
knowledge creation, negotiation and analysis
Studies on system behaviours of large number of (semi-)
autonomous workflow agents
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
7
Possible Interactions with other
groups
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Link to goal-orient business process modelling
communities
– Methods, formal work, automatic design
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Link to agent community
– Component based design
– Agent-based architecture
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Link to web services BPM and Communication
pattern standards
– W3C
– UN EDIFACT, e.g. WSFL, WSDL, ebXML
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Link to adaptive workflow
Link to knowledge management using
enterprise modelling techniques
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
8
References
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Workflow Handbook 1997 (Intro.) 2001
ebXML documents, “A Catalogue of Common
Business Processes”, and other relevant ebXML
documents
IDEF3 methodology
Workflow Survey, Feb 2002
“Accelerating Development with Agent
Components”, IEEE Computer May 2001.
PSL
Web Services Flow Language WSFL, Web
Services Definition Language WSDL
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
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