XWELL: A XML-based workflow event logging mechanism and language for workflow mining systems

Abstract

As the workflow/BPM systems and their applications are prevailing in the wide and variety industries, we can easily predict not only that very large-scale workflow systems (VLSW) become more prevalent and much more needed in the markets, but also that the quality of workflow (QOW) and its related topics be issued in the near future. Especially, in the QOW issues, such as workflow knowledges/intelligence, workflow validations, workflow verifications, workflow mining and workflow rediscovery problems, the toughest challenging and the most impeccable issue is the workflow mining and rediscovery problem, and its solutions should be based upon the event history information logged by workflow enactment engines. That is, the logged information is the most valuable one as well as the Alpha and the Omega of those QOW issues and solutions. In this paper', we propose a XML-based workflow event logging mechanism and language, which is called XWELL, and describe the implementation details of the mechanism so as to be embedded into the e-Chautauqua system that has been recently developed by the CTRL research group as a very large scale workflow management system. Finally, we explain how the XWELL will be applied and used to the workflow mining and rediscovery framework. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.