Dynamic Building of Workflows for Flexible Learning
Workflow technology is being deployed in quite diverse domains. However, the
element of change is present in some degree and form
in almost all domains. A workflow implementation that does not support the
process of change will not benefit the organization in the long run. Change can
be manifested in different forms in workflow processes. Current research mostly
focuses on providing support for evolving process models and/or exception
handling of pre-defined processes. However, there is empirical evidence that not
all processes can be completely pre-defined. Success of these processes is
dependent to a large extent on the flexibility of definition extended to the
clients of that process. For processes that exhibit characteristics of
flexibility, we advocate an approach that aims at making the process of change
part of the workflow process itself.
We have introduced the notion of an
open workflow instance and devised a framework based on this notion which makes
use of special build activities that provide the functionality to integrate the
process of defining a change, into the open instances. In this project, we aim
to apply this concept in the area of workflow based e-learning. The results of
this implementation are not only critical to further develop our research, but
would also provide a valuable tool for the demonstration of this concept.
Publications
Shazia Sadiq, Wasim Sadiq, Maria Orlowska (2001)
Pockets of Flexibility in Workflow Specifications. 20th International Conference
on Conceptual Modelling, ER’2001, Yokohama Japan, 2001.
Peter Mangan (2001) Building Workflow Models for
Flexible Processes. Masters Thesis. School of Information Technology and
Electrical Engineering. The University of Queensland.
Peter Mangan, Shazia Sadiq (2002) On Building
Workflow Models for Flexible Processes. The Thirteenth Australasian Database
Conference ADC2002. Melbourne, Australia 28 January - 1 February,2002.
Peter Mangan, Shazia Sadiq (2002) A Constraint
Specification Approach to Building Flexible Workflows. Journal of Research and
Practice in Information Technology