History-based joins: Semantics, soundness and implementation

Abstract

In this paper we study the use of case history for control structures in workflow processes. In particular we introduce a historydependent join. History dependent control offers much more modeling power than classical control structures and it solves several semantical problems of industrial modeling frameworks. We study the modeling power by means of workflow patterns. Since proper completion (i.e. the ability of any configuration reachable from the initial one to reach the final one) is always an important "sanity check" of process modeling, we introduce a modeling method that guarantees this property for the new control structures. Finally we consider an implementation of the proposed control structures on top of an existing workflow engine. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.