Workflow Pattern Extraction based on ACTA Formalism

ACTA 형식론에 기반한 워크플로우 패턴추출

  • 이우기 (성결대학교 컴퓨터학부) ;
  • 배준수 (전북대학교 산업정보시스템학과) ;
  • 정재윤 (서울대학교 자동화시스템연구소)
  • Published : 2005.12.01

Abstract

As recent business environments are changed and become complex, a more efficient and effective business process management are needed. This paper proposes a new approach to the automatic execution of business processes using Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules that can be automatically triggered by an active database. First of all, we propose the concept of blocks that can classify process flows into several patterns. A block is a minimal unit that can specify the behaviors represented in a process model. An algorithm is developed to detect blocks from a process definition network and transform it into a hierarchical tree model. The behaviors in each block type are modeled using ACTA formalism. This provides a theoretical basis from which ECA rules are identified. The proposed ECA rule-based approach shows that it is possible to execute the workflow using the active capability of database without users' intervention.

워크플로우 관리 시스템은 다양성과 복잡성이 커지고 있는 비즈니스 프로세스 관리의 해결대안으로서 부각되고있다. 본 연구에서는 주어진 프로세스 흐름을 세 가지의 패턴 즉, 반복블록, 직렬블록 및 병렬블록 등으로 단순화하고 노드의 위상적 순서(topological ordering)를 생성하는 알고리즘을 이용하여 사이클을 찾아 반복블록을 제거하고, 다음으로 직렬 및 병렬블록을 반복적으로 검색하는 수로분기 알고리즘을 포함하는 새로운 모델을 제시한다. 그리고 ACTA 형식론에 기반하여 각 블록을 ECA규칙으로 변환하여 사건(event)을 감지하는 워크플로우 시스템으로의 구현 방안을 제시한다. 그 모델의 결과를 컴퓨터가 수행할 수 있도록 만들어주는 과정 즉, 비즈니스 프로세스를 모델에 입각하여 통제하는 데에 사건-조건-처리(ECA)규칙을 사용한다. 유형별로 ECA 규칙에 입각한 통제 논리를 설계하였으며, 이것은 규칙기반 워크플로우 관리시스템의 기초가 될 수 있다. 또한 본 연구의 결과가 현행 DBMS들의 능동형 규칙(active rule)에 적용될 수 있도록 구체적 대안을 제시하였다.

Keywords

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