Workflow

Evolution of grid-based services for Diffusion Tensor Image analysis

by Shayan Shahand

M.W.A. Caan, S. Shahand, F.M. Vos, A.H.C. van Kampen, S.D. Olabarriaga. In Journal of Future Generation Computer Systems, 2012.

Analyzing Diffusion Tensor Image data of the human brain of large study groups is complex and demands new,... more Analyzing Diffusion Tensor Image data of the human brain of large study groups is complex and demands new, sophisticated and computationally intensive pipelines that can efficiently be executed. We present our progress over the past five years in the development and porting of the DTI analysis pipeline to a grid infrastructure. Starting with simple jobs submitted from the command-line, we moved towards a workflow-based implementation and finally into the e-BioInfra Gateway, which offers a web interface for the execution of selected biomedical data analysis software on the Dutch Grid. This gateway is currently being actively used by neuroscientists and for educational purposes.

Distributed Execution of Workflow Using Parallel Partitioning

by Shayan Shahand

M. Hedayat, W. Cai, S. Turner, and S. Shahand. In IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications, 2009.

Grid computing is a fundamental technology for large scale distributed resource sharing. Workflow management is... more Grid computing is a fundamental technology for large scale distributed resource sharing. Workflow management is becoming one of the most important Grid services. A lot of research work has been done on different issues involved in workflow management systems. The focus of this paper is on three areas: workflow partitioning, enactment and data movement. A new workflow management system called parallel and distributed workflow management system (PDWMS) is proposed. In this system the execution of workflow is done by a network of collaborative engines. To achieve this target, the original abstract workflow (input of the system) is partitioned into parallel parts, using a new proposed partitioning algorithm. PDWMS’s data movement, which is categorized into local and global models, uses a peer-to-peer approach.

Workflow description of digital rights management systems

by Silvia Llorente

A methodology for the development of workflow based distributed systems

by Silvia Llorente

Using workflow-based systems for e-services provision

by Silvia Llorente

Evaluating the Cognitive Dimensions of FlowiXML

by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calleros

Co-authored with: Josefina Guerrero García, Jean, Vanderdonckt, Jaime Muñoz
Mathematical Models and ITC: Theory and Applications, Olmos and Ortíz
(Eds), volume1, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla Dirección de
Fomento Editorial, pp: 83-94, ISBN: 978-607-487-353-5.

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. We investigated how to close the gap between the organization requirements and the development of information systems to support them. We introduced FlowiXML a methodology for developing user interfaces for a workflow information system in a systematic way. The methodology provides designers with methodological guidance on how to derive user interfaces of workflow information. We have already experienced the benefits of FlowiXML in several real life case studies conducted at the University. In this paper we report on our evaluation of FlowiXML against the cognitive dimension framework.

Workflow and mobile devices in open distance learning

by José Rouillard

Model-Driven Engineering of Workflow User Interfaces

by Juan Manuel Gonzalez Calleros

A model-driven engineering method is presented that provides designers
with methodological guidance on how to... more A model-driven engineering method is presented 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, 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 inter-
faces 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 work-
flow user interface patterns that are ready to use. The output file generated by the
editor can then be exploited by a workflow execution engine to produce a running
workflow system.

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.

Evaluating the cognitive dimmension of FlowiXML

by Josefina Guerrero Garcia

Co-autothed with: Juan Gonzalez-Calleros, Vanderdonckt, J., Muñoz-Arteaga, J.

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. We investigated how to close the gap between the organization requirements and the development of information systems to support them. We introduced FlowiXML a methodology for developing user interfaces for a workflow information system in a systematic way. The methodology provides designers with methodological guidance on how to derive user interfaces of workflow information. We have already experienced the benefits of FlowiXML in several real life case studies conducted at the University. In this paper we report on our evaluation of FlowiXML against the cognitive dimension framework.

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.

HCOC: A Cost Optimization Algorithm for Workflow Scheduling in Hybrid Clouds

by Luiz B

Journal of Internet Services and Applications

Workflows have been used to represent a variety of applications involving high processing and storage demands. As a... more Workflows have been used to represent a variety of applications involving high processing and storage demands. As a solution to supply this necessity, the cloud computing paradigm has emerged as an on-demand resources provider. While public clouds charge users in a per-use basis, private clouds are owned by users and can be utilized with no charge. When a public cloud and a private cloud are merged, we have what
we call a hybrid cloud. In a hybrid cloud, the user has elasticity provided by public cloud resources that can be aggregated to the private resources pool as necessary. One question faced by the users in such systems is: Which are the best resources to request from a public cloud based on the current demand and on resources costs? In this paper we deal with this problem, presenting HCOC: The Hybrid Cloud Optimized Cost scheduling algorithm. HCOC decides which resources should be leased from the public cloud and aggregated to the private cloud to provide enough processing power to execute a workflow within a given execution time. We present extensive experimental and simulation results which show that HCOC can reduce costs while achieving the established desired execution time.

An Architecture for Adaptation of Virtual Networks on Clouds

by Luiz B

LANOMS 2011

Virtual networks are a new research topic advocated
to increase flexibility, manageability and isolation in the... more Virtual networks are a new research topic advocated
to increase flexibility, manageability and isolation in the Internet.
However they introduce many open issues to become practical
in real scenarios. On the other hand, cloud computing provides
elasticity, where availability scales up on demand, with resources being offered frequently as virtualized services over the Internet. The use of virtual networks as a mechanism in cloud computing can aggregate traffic isolation, improving security and facilitating pricing. Also, it allows us to act in cases where the performance is not in accordance with the contract for services between the customer and the provider of the cloud. In this paper we propose an architecture for the deployment of clouds over virtualized networks. In addition, we experimentally evaluate how the virtual network manager can benefit from different virtual network configurations to improve users’ quality of service.

Workflow Scheduling for SaaS / PaaS Cloud Providers Considering Two SLA Levels

by Luiz B

IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2012

Cloud computing is being used to avoid maintenance costs and upfront investment, while providing elasticity to the... more Cloud computing is being used to avoid maintenance costs and upfront investment, while providing elasticity to the available computational power in a pay-per-use basis. Customers can make use of the cloud as a software (SaaS), platform (PaaS), or infrastructure (IaaS) provider. When one customer utilizes an environment provided by a SaaS cloud, she is unaware of any details about the computational infrastructure where her requests are being processed. Therefore, such infrastructure can be composed of computational resources from a datacenter owned by the SaaS or its resources can be leased from a cloud infrastructure provider. In this paper we present an integer linear program (ILP) formulation for the problem of scheduling SaaS customer’s workflows into multiple IaaS providers where SLA exists at two levels. In addition, we present heuristics to solve the relaxed version of the presented ILP. Simulation results show that the proposed ILP is able to find low-cost solutions for short deadlines, while the proposed heuristics are effective when deadlines are larger

Workflow issues for Health mapping “mashups” of OGC Web Services

by Didier Leibovici

Leibovici, D.G. Anand, S. Swan, J. Goulding, J. Hobona, G. Bastin, L. Pawlowicz, S. Jackson, M. and James, R. (2010) "Workflow issues for Health mapping "mashups" of OGC."". University of Nottingham, CGS Technical report, 2010DL1, 6 pp

Amaya Workflow: Uma Ferramenta De Definição De Processos

by Igor Steinmacher

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

Representing clinical processes in XML process definition language (XPDL)

by Vojtech Huser

Mecanismos de Flexibilização de Sistemas Gerenciadores de Workflow para Antecipação de Tarefas

by Igor Steinmacher