application of petrinets to workflow management
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Preamble
In former times, information systems were designed to support the execution of individual tasks. Today’s information systems need to support the business processes at hand. It no longer suffices to focus on just the tasks. The information system also needs to control, monitor and support the logistical aspects of a business process. In other words, the information system also has to manage the flow of work through the organization. Many organizations with complex business processes have identified the need for concepts, techniques, and tools to support the management of workflows. Based on this need the term workflow management was born (Aalst, 1996).
Until recently there were no generic tools to support workflow management. As a result, parts of the business process were hard-coded in the applications. For example, an application to support task X triggers another application to support task Y. This means that one application knows about the existence of another application. This is undesirable, because every time the underlying business process is changed, applications need to be modified. Moreover, similar constructs need to be implemented in several applications and it is not possible to monitor and control the entire workflow. Therefore, several software vendors recognized the need for workflow management systems. A workflow management system (WFMS) is a generic software tool which allows for the definition, execution, registration and control of workflows. At the moment many vendors are offering a workflow management system. This shows that the software industry recognizes the potential of workflow management tools.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In the development of workflow management systems, it is difficult to describe data and as activities simultaneously and equivalently. So far, there have been only few attempts to solve the problems for complexity which occur in the development of workflow management system
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Preamble
In former times, information systems were designed to support the execution of individual tasks. Today’s information systems need to support the business processes at hand. It no longer suffices to focus on just the tasks. The information system also needs to control, monitor and support the logistical aspects of a business process. In other words, the information system also has to manage the flow of work through the organization. Many organizations with complex business processes have identified the need for concepts, techniques, and tools to support the management of workflows. Based on this need the term workflow management was born (Aalst, 1996).
Until recently there were no generic tools to support workflow management. As a result, parts of the business process were hard-coded in the applications. For example, an application to support task X triggers another application to support task Y. This means that one application knows about the existence of another application. This is undesirable, because every time the underlying business process is changed, applications need to be modified. Moreover, similar constructs need to be implemented in several applications and it is not possible to monitor and control the entire workflow. Therefore, several software vendors recognized the need for workflow management systems. A workflow management system (WFMS) is a generic software tool which allows for the definition, execution, registration and control of workflows. At the moment many vendors are offering a workflow management system. This shows that the software industry recognizes the potential of workflow management tools.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In the development of workflow management systems, it is difficult to describe data and as activities simultaneously and equivalently. So far, there have been only few attempts to solve the problems for complexity which occur in the development of workflow management system
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