Arthur S. Hitomi’s research while affiliated with University of California, Irvine and other places

The unpredictability of business processes requires that workflowsystems support exception handling with the ability to dynamicallyadapt to the changing environment. Traditional approaches to handlingthis problem have fallen short, providing little support for change,particularly once the process has begun execution. Further,exceptions vary widely in their character and significance,challenging the application of any single approach to handling them.We briefly discuss the classification of exceptions, highlightingdiffering impacts on the workflow model. Based on this discussion, wesuggest principal goals to address in the development of adaptiveworkflow support, including strategies for avoiding exceptions,detecting them when they occur, and handling them at various levels ofimpact. We then identify a number of specific approaches to supportingthese goals within the design of a workflow system infrastructure.Finally, we describe the implementation of many of these approaches inthe Endeavors workflow support system.

The unpredictability of business processes requires that workflow systems support exception handling with the ability to dynamically adapt to the changing environment. Traditional approaches to handling this problem have fallen short, providing little support for change, particularly once the process has begun execution. Further, exceptions vary widely in their character and significance, challenging the application of any single approach to handling them. We briefly discuss the classification of exceptions, highlighting differing impacts on the workflow model. Based on this discussion we suggest principal goals to address in the development of adaptive workflow support, including strategies for avoiding exceptions, detecting them when they occur, and handling them at various levels of impact. We then identify a number of specific approaches to supporting these goals within the design of a workflow system infrastructure. Finally, we describe the implementation of many of these approaches in the Endeavors workflow support system.

Frequently process workflows are distributed collections of activities that involve groups of individuals at disparate locations. To coordinate these tasks, a process support system should provide for distributed process execution and integration with tools across networks. We describe the use of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), an increasingly ubiquitous technology, to provide a coordination mechanism for distributed process execution and tool integration. To make the distributed workflow and benefits of HTTP more illustrative, the demonstration will focus on a software pre-requirements process designed for the Applications Development Group of Pacific Bell, a major telecommunications company. This document routing and approval process was developed to support a major requirements engineering activity, where participants interact with applets in a web-browser to submit a document for approval. Keywords open, distributed process technology, architecture INTRODUCTION Process...

Processes that perform and distribute tasks over the Internet are known as "Web-Driven Process Workflow." The UCI Travel Expense Process (TEP) and the Pacific Bell Applications Development Group (ADG) are two webdriven process workflows that exemplify process reuse by leveraging Endeavors, a research workflow process support system at the University of California at Irvine. This paper describes the TEP and ADG projects, and the enabling components and architecture that allow reuse and extension of process components with off-the-shelf tools and webbased resources over the Internet. Keywords Workflow, process, Internet, components, reuse, architecture INTRODUCTION The UCI Travel Expense Process (TEP) and the Pacific Bell Applications Development Group (ADG) [3] are two examples of web-driven process workflows. Both systems involve common workflow activities such as review and approval processes, and both provide distributed process and information across groups and individuals. To b...

Frequently process workflows are distributed collections of activities that involve groups of individuals at disparate locations. To coordinate these tasks, a process support system should provide for distributed process execution and integration with tools across networks. We describe the use of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), an increasingly ubiquitous technology, to provide a coordination mechanism for distributed process execution and tool integration. Building on the Endeavors process support system, we discuss extensions to an HTTP server to provide support for communication and coordination between system components as well as integration with external tools. We also examine several progressively more distributed and flexible approaches to distribution using HTTP and Endeavors. Keywords Software process and process improvement, hypermedia, project management, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and software engineering, distributed and parallel systems, environ...

As software projects evolve, possibly differing in size, complexity, scope, and purpose, the development processes that support the project must evolve to reflect these changes. The Endeavors system is an open, distributed process modeling and execution infrastructure that addresses communication, coordination, and control issues. Endeavors' solution architecture applies five key design strategies: (1) maintaining multiple object model layers, (2) implementing the architecture as a set of highly componentized, lightweight, transportable, concurrent elements, (3) providing customization capabilities for each layer of the object model, (4) using a reflexive object model to support dynamic change, and (5) allowing dynamic loading and changing of objects. Keywords open, distributed process technology, architecture INTRODUCTION Effective software evolution demands that all stakeholders are able to participate in a system's evolution. This requires involvement in evolutionary processes, ...

Peer computing is the next stage in the evolution of the Internet and promises to be a versatile underpinning for an enormous variety of novel, entertaining, and useful applications. However, peer-to-peer applications pose many difficult challenges for developers. We examine a set of requirements for robust peer computing, propose a small set of architectural principles designed to meet those requirements, and discuss the systematic exploitation of those principles in the context of Magi, a general- purpose, peering infrastructure for both embedded and enterprise applications.