1 Review Topics 1.Basic understanding of a business process 2.The relationship of a business process with a work flow 3.The different types aspects and types of workflows 4.Characteristics of applications built on a workflow 5.Advanced applications of workflows 6.Requirements of a production work flow 7.Relationship between workflow and other information processing technologies 8.Process engineering 9.Business logic models

2 What is a Business Process? “ A set of one or more linked procedures or activities which collectively realize a business objective or policy goal, normally within the context of an organizational structure defining function roles and relationships” (WfMC, 2003). WfMC is the Workflow Management Coalition

3 What is a 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, 2003).

4 The Three Dimensions of Workflows Business processes and workflows have 3 dimensions 1.Process 2.Organization 3.Technology The three dimensions are also known as 3 Ws 1.What 2.Who 3.Technology Some call it 3Rs 1.Routes 2.Rules 3.Roles

5 Types of Users of Workflows End user – performs the individual tasks System administrator – has the overall responsibility for the workflow system Operation administrator – has the technical responsibility of the workflow system Process administrator – monitors the expected processing of the individual business process

6 Categories of Workflows Collaborative Ad Hoc Production Administrative Repetition Business Value low high

7 Application Structure of Workflows Systems A1A2 A3 A4A4 A5 C1 C2 C3

8 Application Structure of Workflows Systems A1A2 A3 A4A4 A5 C1 C2 C3 m1m2 m3m4

9 Operating Systems and Application OS An operating system is a fundamental systems software the enables application to run in their local environments A WFMS serves as a virtually mutual operating system, thus relieving applications from OS compatibility problems across multiple platform. It does that by invoking applications in their respective OS platform using mechanisms, such as, message queuing

10 Transactional Workflows The ACID properties of a transaction are: –Atomicity- A transaction is executed as a whole or it is aborted –Consistency – A transaction lead to a valid state of the system –Isolation – Data is isolated from other transaction until the transaction is completed –Durability – The changes are not lost under any circumstances In highly automated workflows, activities are often carried out as transactions. Such a transaction are called Global Transaction in Workflows The set of activates that are part of the global transaction are called atomic sphere

11 Workflows and Groupware Groupware is classified into: –Communication –Collaboration –Coordination This classification suggests four groupings of applications: –Communication systems –Shared data spaces –Workgroup computing

12 Business Engineering Business engineering is the analysis, specification, and modeling of business processes with their associated resources The key objective of business engineering are to: –Reduce time for the execution of the process –Eliminate unnecessary tasks –Perform parallel tasks Business engineering is triggered by the changing business environment The nature of processes have changed enormously in the last decade.

13 Business Modeling The objective is to show the current and intended process model of a business. The typical deliverables of business modeling are: –Process goals – customer sat., profitability, growth –Business processes – initially high level processes, roles, and activities are modeled –Organizational structures – structure of an organization –Business objects – not necessarily technology objects –Critical success factors – set of criteria to be met to declare success

14 Business Logic Collect Credit Information Assess Risk Accept Risk Request Approval Reject Risk Control Flow

15 Business Modeling Control Connector – the arrow that defines the flow of control from one activity to another activity. Fork – the activity that is the source of parallel work Join – the activity that is the target of the parallel work Join Condition – whether the activity can be performed Activation condition – when the activity can be carried out Exit condition – when the activity has successfully completed

16 Business Logic Collect Credit Information Assess Risk Accept Risk Request Approval Reject Risk Data Flow Name Address Risk Amount Name Address Risk Amount Amount > 1000 Risk is low Accept = Yes