Agentflow - ㄧ協同合作跨組織的工作流程

Abstract

工作流程管理系統(WfMSs)模型化和管控商業流程(business process)的能力已全世界被接受。過去，我們定義一個組織內部工作流程模型(PLAN)並實作相關的工具，允許使用者可以用圖型化方式描述流程，表單與組織架構。 PLAN已成功在Agentflow裡實現並用以執行工作流程應用程式。 PLAN 和大部分目前的工作管理系統是採用集中化的架構只適用於單一組織內部使用，而不同組織之間的流程應用程式很難達成。本論文中提出一個以服務為導向之工作流程模式(CA-PLAN)用以支援跨組織的商業流程功能。在 CA-PLAN 中，一個跨越組織的流程依據組織之界線劃分成多個單一組織內之流程。在每一個組織內的工作流程系統被視為一個工作流程整合元件(IWC)。每一個 IWC 包含一個流程服務介面，遠端流程介面和組織內部的流程。一個跨組織之流程是經由相關聯IWC的流程服務與遠端流程之間連接做成。而且，在Agentflow系統(架構和實作)裡提供的相關服務技術和支援之工具也被提出。 除此之外，我們也提出一聰明且個人化的企業流程入口網站架構。 工作流程應用的腳本不再局限於小的用戶組織操作文件管理或者數據處理應用程式，商業流程自動化和整合變得更複雜。透過企業流程入口網站與軟體代理人機制來佈署流程應用程式用以幫助員工的每日作業和經理在執行決策時之建議。

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) are accepted worldwide due to their ability of modeling and controlling business processes. In the past, we defined an intra-organizational workflow specification model, Process LANguage PLAN. PLAN, with the associated tools, allows user to describe the graph specification for processes, artifacts and participants’ organization. PLAN has been successfully implemented in Agentflow to support workflow (Agentflow) applications. PLAN and most current WfMSs are designed to adopt the centralized architecture such that they can be applied in an organization only. However, the participants of Agentflow applications in different organizations can hardly serve each other with workflows. In this dissertation, a service-oriented cooperative workflow model, Cooperative Agentflow Process LANguage (CA-PLAN) is presented. CA-PLAN proposes a workflow component model to model inter-organizational process. In CA-PLAN, an inter-organizational process is partitioned into several intra-organizational processes. Each workflow system inside an organization is modeled as an Integrated Workflow Component (IWC). Each IWC contains a process service interface specifying the process services provided by the organization, in conjunction with a remote process interface specifying what the remote processes are used to refer to remote process services provided by other organizations, and intra-organizational processes. IWC is a workflow node and participant. An inter-organizational process is made of connection among these process services and remote processes with respect to different IWCs. Besides, the related service techniques and supporting tools provided in Agentflow system (architecture and implementation) are also presented. Besides, we also present an intelligent and personalized enterprise process portal. The scenarios of workflow applications are no longer limited to small user groups operating the document management or data processing applications. Meanwhile, business process automation and integration are getting more sophisticated. The system deploys workflow applications inside the Enterprise Process Portal to help employee’s assistants in daily works as well as manager’s advisor in executive decision.