一個以工作流程技術改進普適計算技術的研究

Abstract

隨著行動裝置的發展與普及，九零年代初期所提出普適計算(Pervasive Computing)的概念逐漸 不再只是一個願景，而是一個極度可能的未來，在這十年間，許多關於普適計算的議題，如 異質網路間的通信、通信管道的快速建立、普適計算環境的演進，都獲得了完整的解決，將 普適計算與現今的人們的生活或是商業活動更進一步的結合與實現，將是普適計算下一階段 的課題；另一個也是九零年代所提出的概念，工作流程(Workflow)與工作流程管理系統 (Workflow Management System, WfMS)，在協調企業內部流程、人員與資源上有優異的表現， 又隨著企業自動化與電子化的趨勢，工作流程管理系統逐漸成為統整企業資訊系統的核心要 角。 將普適計算與工作流程系統相結合，是未來企業資訊系統的必然趨勢，將普適計算環境的強 大適應性與工作流程管理系統的強大整合性相結合，呈現了同時具有電子化、行動化的未來 (商務)模式。 本專題針對現有的普適計算技術作研究，並且結合現有的工作流程管理系統，以建構新的普 適工作流程管理系統(Pervasive Workflow Management System)，同時配合此系統研究有效的 普適工作流程開發程序以及開發環境，一方面藉由實際的專案開發驗證此系統之實用性，另 一方面藉由將普適計算環境與目前良好運作的工作流程管理系統相整合，希望能找出未來企 業資訊系統運作的新架構。

With development and popularization of mobile devices, the concept 「Pervasive Computing」 which was raised in 1990』s gradually becomes an extremely possible future rather than an imagination. During this decade, many issues about pervasive computing, such as communication over heterogeneous network, ad-hoc establishment of communication channels, and evolutionary of pervasive computing environment, are widely discussed and researched. Further integrating pervasive computing with people』s daily life and enterprise business will be the next important subject of pervasive computing. At the same time, Workflow, another important concept raised in 1990』s, shows its capability in cooperating business processes, staffs, and resources in enterprises. With the trend of electronic-business, the workflow management system (WfMS) becomes the primary role in integrating IT systems among enterprises. Combining the pervasive computing and WfMS should be the oncoming tendency in future enterprise IT system. Pervasive computing is advantage for users to adapt heterogeneous environments, and WfMS effectively integrates many existing systems. Integrating pervasive computing environment and WfMS shows the future business model which is highly mobile and electronic. This project focuses on the recent studies in pervasive computing and integrates an existing WfMS with pervasive computing environment to build a prototype of a pervasive workflow management system (pWfMS). With a pWfMS(prototype), we hope an effective development process and integrated developing environment could be established. The practicality of such a system would be examined through developing projects in real world, and through integrating pervasive computing and WfMS, a new architecture for enterprise application in the future might be discovered.