1 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Draft for AKT July Workshop Jessica Chen-Burger

2 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Current Work l Continue development of the Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language (FBPML) and its formal representation, including extension on execution semantics that conventional BPM lacks l Design the architecture of a generic component- and agent-based workflow system shell that suits most e-business workflows l Implement a generic workflow system shell l Survey relevant business process modelling and workflow methods l Investigate problems and discover opportunities in the domain of e-business

3 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Previous Work : Enterprise Modelling Investigate and propose how different types of 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

4 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Previous Work: Business Process Modelling l 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 l Developing a generic methodology for building BPMs

5 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Points for Forward Work: Problems and Opportunities in E-Business l 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 l In e-business, workflow system must be able to communicate, negotiate, make decisions and do deals autonomously l 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 l Workflow systems must enable and support frequent change of business procedures while maintain stability of business operations

6 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Virtual Organisations with Workflow Systems Workflow System - 1 Process Model - 1 Workflow System - 2 Process Model - 2 Broker Constraint Solver - 1 Intelligent Agent - 1 Intelligent Agent - n Intelligent Agent - 2 Intelligent Agent - m Intelligent Agent – 2a Constraint Solver - 2 Intelligent Agent – 1a Internal Broker X Internal Broker Y Organisation AOrganisation B

7 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Possible Future Work: Towards a Distributed Environment l Extension on direct mapping between BPMs and workflow systems (WFS) l Extension on dynamic generation of business processes and workflows while maintain the stability of WFS l Extension of purpose-driven knowledge-based visualisation techniques l Reconcile and formalise shared communication patterns between workflow systems and agents, e.g. using XML, RDF, ebXML l Knowledge based workflow systems: autonomous knowledge creation, negotiation and analysis l Studies on system behaviours of large number of (semi-) autonomous workflow agents

8 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh Possible Interactions with other groups l Link to goal-orient business process modelling communities –Methods, formal work, automatic design l Link to agent community –Component based design –Agent-based architecture l Link to web services BPM and Communication pattern standards –W3C –UN EDIFACT, e.g. WSFL, WSDL, ebXML l Link to adaptive workflow l Link to knowledge management using enterprise modelling techniques

9 Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh References l Workflow Handbook 1997 (Intro.) 2001 l ebXML documents, “A Catalogue of Common Business Processes”, and other relevant ebXML documents l IDEF3 methodology l Workflow Survey, Feb 2002 l “Accelerating Development with Agent Components”, IEEE Computer May l PSL l Web Services Flow Language WSFL, Web Services Definition Language WSDL