Configurable workflow models

Abstract

Workflow modeling languages allow for the specification of executable business processes. They, however, typically do not provide any guidance for the adaptation of workflow models, i.e. they do not offer any methods or tools explaining and highlighting which adaptations of the models are feasible and which are not. Therefore, an approach to identify so-called configurable elements of a workflow modeling language and to add configuration opportunities to workflow models is presented in this paper. Configurable elements are the elements of a workflow model that can be modified such that the behavior represented by the model is restricted. More precisely, a configurable element can be either set to enabled, to blocked, or to hidden. To ensure that such configurations lead only to desirable models, our approach allows for imposing so-called requirements on the model's configuration. They have to be fulfilled by any configuration, and limit therefore the freedom of configuration choices. The identification of configurable elements within the workflow modeling language of YAWL and the derivation of the new "configurable YAWL" language provide a concrete example for a rather generic approach. A transformation of configured models into lawful YAWL models demonstrates its applicability. © 2008 World Scientific Publishing Company.