Bussiness Process

How to Describe Workflow Information Systems to Support Business Process

by Josefina Guerrero Garcia

Co-Authored with: Jean Vanderdonckt, Christophe Lemaige, Juan M. González Calleros

This paper addresses a methodology for developing the various user interfaces (UI) of a workflow information system... more This paper addresses a methodology for developing the various user interfaces (UI) of a workflow information system (WIS), which are advocated to automate business processes, following a model-centric approach based on the requirements and processes of the organization. The methodology applies to: 1) integrate human and machines based activities, in particular those involving interaction with IT applications and tools, 2) to identify how tasks are structured, who perform them, what their relative order is, how they are offered or assigned, and how tasks are being tracked.
For this purpose, workflow is recursively decomposed into processes which are in turn decomposed into tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose structure,
ordering, and connection with the domain model allows the automated generation of corresponding UIs
in a transformational approach.

A Methodology for Developing User Interfaces to Workflow Information Systems

by Josefina Guerrero Garcia

PhD Thesis Josefina Guerrero García

Supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to... more Supporting business processes through the help of workflow systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to stay competitive. An important task is the specification of workflow, i.e. the parts of a business process that can be supported by a computer-based system.
This thesis introduces a methodology for developing user interfaces for a workflow information system in a systematic way. The methodology involves a set of models that capture the various aspects required for this purpose, a user interface description language to specify the corresponding user interface, a method to structure the usage of these models, and software support. The methodology is delineated by a set of requirements that are elicited and motivated by the state of the art and relying on a framework to model workflow. The validation of the proposed methodology is achieved by applying it over different real-world case studies belonging to different domains of human activity. The methodology provides designers with methodological guidance on how to derive user interfaces of workflow information systems from a series of models, which is unprecedented.
For this purpose, a workflow is recursively decomposed into processes that are in turn decomposed into tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose structure, ordering, and connection with the domain model allows a semi-automated generation of corresponding user interfaces by model-to-model transformation. Reshuffling tasks within a same process or reordering processes within a same workflow is straightforwardly propagated as a natural consequence of the  mapping model used in the model-driven engineering. The various models involved in the method can be edited in a graphical editor based on Petri Nets and simulated interactively. This editor also contains a set of workflow user interface patterns that are ready to use.

Developing User Interfaces for Community-Oriented Workflow Information Systems

by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calleros

Technology to support groups is rapidly growing in use. In recent years, the Web has become a privileged platform for... more Technology to support groups is rapidly growing in use. In recent years, the Web has become a privileged platform for implementing community-oriented workflows, giving rise to a new generation of workflow information systems. Specifically, the Web provides ubiquitous access to information, supports explicit distribution of business process across workers, workplaces, and computing platforms. These processes could be all supported by platform-independent user interfaces. This chapter presents a model-driven engineering method that provides designers with methodological guidance on how to systematically derive user interfaces of workflow information systems from a series of models. For this purpose, the workflow is recursively decomposed into processes which are in turn decomposed into tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose structure, ordering, and connection with the domain model allows the automated generation of corresponding user interfaces in a transformational approach. The various models involved in the method can be edited in a workflow editor based on Petri nets and simulated interactively.

FlowiXML: a step towards designing workflow management systems

by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calleros

Co-authored with: Josefina Guerrero Garcia, Jean Vanderdonckt

Towards a Multi-User Interaction Meta-Model

by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calleros