Possibilistic workflow net for deadlock avoidance in interorganizational business processes

Abstract

Soundness property is an important criterion which needs to be satisfied when treating workflow processes. However, a significant part of industrial business process models is not in fact sound, which can lead to deadlock situations due to message ordering mismatches, for example. In order to avoid deadlock situation in interorganizational business processes, an approach based on Siphon structures, possibilistic Petri nets and interorganizational WorkFlow nets is proposed. A deadlock situation is characterized by an insufficiently marked Siphon. Possibilistic Petri nets with uncertainty on the marking and on the transition firing are used to ensure the existence of at least one transition firing sequence enabling the completion of the process without encountering the deadlock situation. Routing patterns and communication protocols that exist in business processes are modeled by interorganizational Work- Flow nets. Combining these formalisms, a kind of possibilistic WorkFlow net is obtained.