The 11th Conference on AdvancedInformation Systems EngineeringHeidelberg, Germany June 14-18, 1999

Amit ShethAmit Sheth

in collaboration within collaboration withWil van der AalstWil van der AalstI. Budak ArpinarI. Budak Arpinar

T. Lima and METEOR teamT. Lima and METEOR team

Large Scale DistributedInformation Systems Lab.

University of GeorgiaAthens, GA, USA

http://lsdis.cs.uga.edu

SABPM WorkshopSABPM WorkshopKeynoteKeynote

IntroductionIntroduction

• Challenges and OpportunitiesChallenges and Opportunities

• Current Status: what do we lack now?Current Status: what do we lack now?

• Architectural approachesArchitectural approaches

• Technical challengesTechnical challenges

• Wrap-upWrap-up

Challenges and OpportunitiesChallenges and Opportunities

New Millennium: Technical PerspectiveNew Millennium: Technical Perspective

• Speed of work and technical developments

• Distribution – everything and everyone is

connected, logical distance is unrelated to

physical distance

• Process – increasing ability to cooperate

(coordinate and collaborate)

Acknowledgement: T. Malone/MIT Study, WACC Conference

Challenges and OpportunitiesChallenges and Opportunities

New Millennium: Market PerspectiveNew Millennium: Market Perspective

• Silicon Economics is changing many Silicon Economics is changing many

industriesindustries

– TelecommunicationsTelecommunications

– Energy UtilitiesEnergy Utilities

– Retailing Retailing

– ManufacturingManufacturing

– . . .. . .Resources and innovations will come from Resources and innovations will come from

those providing solutions to specific markets/industriesthose providing solutions to specific markets/industries

Challenges and OpportunitiesChallenges and Opportunities

Telecommunications...Telecommunications...

Challenges and OpportunitiesChallenges and Opportunities

Prelude to the networked economy:

Telecommunications …

The high valuations that the Wall Street has afforded to new

entrants, exceeding $20 billion in valuation in just two to three

years for companies such as Global Crossing, Level 3

Communications and Qwest Communications, have fueled

entirely new business models, creating a new breed of global

corporations, that in turn have provided opportunities for

applying information technology to solve the challenges.

Analyst Briefing by Level 3 Communications, © Level 3 Communications

JustJust do itdo it

Analyst Briefing by Level 3 Communications, © Level 3 Communications

Analyst Briefing by Level 3 Communications, © Level 3 Communications

Convergence orConvergence orNext Generation NetworksNext Generation Networks

Public switched

telephone network

(PSTN) with (packet

switched) data

network

Single common packet

network for supporting

voice, data, video and

other communications

services (including

VoIP—voice over IP)The telecommunications

service providers

ILECs

CLECs

LD Carriers

ISPs

Wireless Carriers

A Critical Role ProcessA Critical Role ProcessTechnology Can PlayTechnology Can Play

• Two of the most critical success factors

customer acquisition and retention,

providing value added features and bundled

services.

Solutions support these two compelling needs invariably

lead to the need for interorganizational workflow processes

because customers prefer to deal with a single service provider,

and most high-value services require integration of what

different types of providers have to offer. Today’s data-centric Today’s data-centric

solutions are inadequate and inappropriate.solutions are inadequate and inappropriate.

Current Status:Current Status:•what has been industry’s approach what has been industry’s approach

to providing workflow solutions? to providing workflow solutions?

•what are researcher doing?what are researcher doing?

•what do we lack now?what do we lack now?

Key conclusion from Doculab’sKey conclusion from Doculab’sworkflow product comparison studyworkflow product comparison study

Products that allow development of complex

applications, provide flexibility and support

integration are very hard to use, take too long

and require experience programmers (and are

still not quite comprehensive)

Easy to use products are too restrictive –

and are useful for small or standard

applications only

METEOR EAppS’s objective has been to avoid significant compromise.

Slightly oversimplified observation onSlightly oversimplified observation on state of the art in Workflow Technology state of the art in Workflow Technology

• Primarily centralized, client/server architectures

• Difficulty in integrating with existing applications and

databases, not meant for heterogeneous, multi-server

environments

• Static workflows that can be fully defined before

enactment starts

• Focus on repetitive processes

Most products are suitable for many office automation

and other human oriented processes. But QoS for

business- and mission-critical processes is lacking.

Vendor in sectors adding workflowVendor in sectors adding workflow

e-mail

documentmanagement

workgroup/collaborative

imaging

Inte

rnet

ORB

datab

ase

TP-monitoring

Message/Data Tools/Architectureof current EAI products/solutions

Messaging/PersistentQueue Middleware

Publish/Subscribe;event-based messaging

PackagedApp

Broker

Adapter

Adapter

Adapter

Adapter

App

App

LegacyApp

DistributedObject Management

(ORB)

EnterpriseJava Beans

DCOM

METEORComponen

t

HOST 1

HOST 2HOST 3

HOST 4

ApplicationEDI

UserTask

UserTask

METEORComponen

t

METEORComponen

t

METEORComponen

t

METEORComponen

t

Services and Business Objects

Business Object/Process Tool/Architecture of the METEOREnterprise Application Development & Integration

Database Transaction

Emergent New Market forEmergent New Market forSolutions in the Networked EconomySolutions in the Networked Economy

document-centric, imaging and office automation apps

scalable, dynamicmission-critical processes with

integration capabilities

process-supportedand interorganizational

e-commerce apps

EAI for business object

/ process

An integrateprocess-

enabled IS

Primaryareas ofcurrentproductsupport

Research Disciplines Contributing toResearch Disciplines Contributing toWorkflow ManagementWorkflow Management

Quantitative and

Formal M

ethods/

Modeling

Softwar

e

Enginee

ring,

HCI, et

c.

OrganizationalScience

CSCW

Database Management/Information Systems

Distributed

Computing/

Systems

MIS/Reengineering/

Methodology

SoftwareProcess

MENTOR

WISE

WASA

CRYSTALMETEOR

Patha Rei

ETHZMetuflow

Etc…etc

Research in DB/IS/DC communities

WIDE

Central proposition Central proposition

• So far, lion’s share of the attention in Information Systems has gone to data

• This attention will increasingly shift to information and knowledge on the one hand, and processes on the other

• We will see process as an organic part of doing a business-- with e-commerce as the business driver, with e-commerce as the business driver,

processes will be the engine on high-octane fuel to processes will be the engine on high-octane fuel to

allow the driver to reach ahead of the competition. allow the driver to reach ahead of the competition.

Processes will be chief differentiating and the competitive force in

doing business in the networked economy. They will be deeply

integrated with the way of doing business, and that they will be

critical components of almost all types of systems supporting

enterprise-level and business critical activities.

Central proposition Central proposition

Architectural ApproachesArchitectural Approaches

Evolution of Workflow System Evolution of Workflow System ArchitecturesArchitectures

Observations/PredictionsObservations/Predictions

• Workflow process management functions and

technology will be absorbed by other

technologies.

• The workflow capability will be built in critical

enterprise application systems such as – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),

– Supply-chain management,

– Future generation of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI),

– E-commerce application builder,

– Other middleware services.

Observations/PredictionsObservations/Predictions

• Adaptability will become one of the key requirements.

• There will be a shift from data-centric to process- centric knowledge.

• Outsourcing of workflow management will become an attractive option.

Corporations already outsource some of the data related functions

as well as their Web sites: Exodus (http://www.exodus.com)

manages Web sites for large corporations.

Recently, new companies are targeting application outsourcing.

Outsourcing Process ManagementOutsourcing Process Management

Organizations desire to concentrate on core

competencies will lead to outsourcing

process management, especially to support

inter-organizational processes.

Outsourcing of processes will have a

considerable impact on the way

organizations operate.

Impact of Outsourcing

Outsourcing of Data, Web,Outsourcing of Data, Web,Application and ProcessesApplication and Processes

Does workflow technologyDoes workflow technologyhave future?have future?

The number of workflow products offered

increased to 200-300 around 1996, and then

started to decline.

The analysts projected an enormous growth,

from $2 billion of the total workflow market to

$7 billion in 2000: this potential does not seem

to have been realized

Lack of SuccessLack of Success

There are several explanations for the lack of

success of today's generation of workflow

management systems:

• Workflow management systems were positioned as

the silver bullet solving all kinds of problems: they

could not meet the expectations.

• The lack of real standards on the one hand and many

vendors on the other hand has created a scattered

landscape were customers are reluctant to invest in

workflow products.

New Market SegmentsNew Market Segments

Other market segments started to co-opt some of the workflow capabilities:

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) started to increasingly support workflow capabilities.

Several Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) products currently support limited forms of

workflow capabilities (e.g., Active Software, New Era of Networks, and

CrossWorlds, and Vitria).

The average Fortune 2000 company relies on 49 enterprise-level applications to run its business and spends 25 to 33 percent of its

IT budget just to get them talk to one another.

Some of the workflow vendors are in the process of positioning their products in the E-commerce segment.

Has workflow technology failed?Has workflow technology failed?

If we narrowly focus on workflow market segment and predominant vendors of a few years ago: perhaps yes.

However, we see processes as an organic component of any EAI and E-commerce solution.

• Looking to the future, we discern two trends: – First, vendors are targeting vertical sectors or industry

specific solutions, e.g., telecommunication, healthcare.

– EAI, and E-commerce, especially in the context of vanishing

corporate boundaries in the networked economy, a new

breed of products will appear to dynamically create and

support virtual communities of commerce partners.

Architecture forArchitecture forInterorganizational WorkflowsInterorganizational Workflows

• Internet: the source of value moves from physical products to digital products.

• Custom point-to-point integration between every buyer and supplier is impractical: transform supply chains into open and interoperable marketplaces.

Most of the available marketplaces do not have enough facilities

to automate complex business processes. In this respect,

workflow systems should be exploited to model buying

and/or selling processes.

Architecture for ManagingArchitecture for ManagingBusiness ProcessesBusiness Processes

• Depending on how various stake holders – the

consumers, the intermediaries, and the suppliers

interact, and how the capability of managing

business processes is realized, we offer

architectures for managing business processes

– process portal,

– process vortex,

– dynamically trading processes.

Process PortalProcess Portal

Portal

Enterprise A

Buyer

Intra-enterpriseBusinessProcesses

Cross-enterpriseBusiness Processes

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise B

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise C

Process PortalProcess Portal

• One-stop shopping for products or information

• Peer-to-peer interactions

• A portal is responsible for carrying out a majority

of activities using the data it has and the

transactions it supports.

• Predefined, (relatively) static business processes

A key characteristic of a portal is to own or

manage much of the data and information

it needs to meet its customers needs.

Process VortexProcess Vortex

W W W C a ta lo g u e

D o c u m e n t E x c h a n g e

C o n te n t M a n a g e m e n t & In te g ra t io n

B u s in e s s S e rv ic e s

T ra d in g P a r tn e r R e g is t ry

E n te r p r is e BV o r te x M a r k e tp la c e -1

B u y

S e l l /B u y

S e l lS e l l

S e l l /B u y

B u y

E n te r p r is e A

E n te r p r is e C

D o c u m e n t E x c h a n g e

C o n te n t M a n a g e m e n t & In te g r a t io n

B u s in e s s S e r v ic e s

T r a d in g P a r tn e r R e g is t r y

W W W C a ta lo g u e

D o c u m e n t E x c h a n g e

C o n te n t M a n a g e m e n t & In te g r a t io n

B u s in e s s S e r v ic e s

T r a d in g P a r tn e r R e g is t r y

W W W C a ta lo g u e

V o r te x M a r k e tp la c e -2

Process VortexProcess Vortex

• Interactions among buyers and sellers occur

through governed marketplaces

• They focus on very specific product lines

• Predefined business processes

• Single interface to catalogues and supplier

aggregation

Telecommunications industry: service provider needs to support

different classes of customers (e.g., individual residences, small

businesses, and large businesses) and require flexibility to deal

with a limited set of partners. For example, a CLEC may need

flexibility in leasing network capacities for long distance services

from QWEST communications or Level 3 communications.

Virtual Business ProcessesVirtual Business Processes

• A virtual business process of a virtual enterprise, also referred as interorganizational workflow, goes beyond a single enterprise boundary and it is constructed by combining the services provided by different companies

which are collectively called a trading community.

• Some of the fundamental issues that need to be addressed to implement a virtual enterprise are:

How to provide a mechanism whereby companies can advertise their services, other companies can look at them and, finally, incorporate these services into their own business process?

How to execute a virtual process spawning several enterprises without being managed by one physical enterprise?

Dynamically Trading ProcessesDynamically Trading Processes

VirtualMarketplace -1

X

?

?

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise D

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise A

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise B

WWW Catalogue

Enterprise C

VirtualMarketplace -2

Dynamically Trading ProcessesDynamically Trading Processes?

• Many complex interactions among enterprises

• Business processes are highly dynamic

• Based on the needs and preferences of a customer, a virtual process is constructed on the fly to meet this very particular demand of the customer.

• Participants are a group of semi-autonomous or

autonomous organizations that need to cooperate.

Telecommunications industry: one of the visions of the future networks

includes the facility to allow consumer devices to interact with other devices

and humans on the network in an integrated fashion. The device may be

able to specify a need for a specific type and quality of network services

required and the network dynamically composes a customized process to

allow processing of the request.

Technical ChallengesTechnical Challenges

Technical ChallengesTechnical Challenges

• Modeling and Design

• Analysis

• Enactment Services

• Interoperability

• Adaptability

Open Issues for modeling Open Issues for modeling interorganizational workflowsinterorganizational workflows

Integration of

• Organization modeling(e.g., in the networked economy, workflow processes will cross organizational boundaries and these boundaries will become fluid and subject to continuous change)

• Security Modeling

• Data Modeling

Open Issues for Analysis of WorkflowsOpen Issues for Analysis of Workflows

• None of the commercially available WFMSs offers verification capabilities, which go beyond trivial checks such as the absence of an initial task or input condition.

• In most WFMSs it is possible to model the synchronization (i.e., AND-join) of two alternative paths (i.e., two paths starting with an OR-split) without any warning at design time: at run-time such a construct will inevitably result in deadlocks.

• Research efforts should aim at simulation facilities.

Open Issues for Workflow EnactmentOpen Issues for Workflow Enactment

• Significant additional research and serious engineering efforts are needed to improve scalability, exception handling, automatic recovery, and other QoS criteria.

• Building all the capabilities from scratch within a workflow system without using any state-of-the-art supporting tools is not an easy task:– Iona Technology’s OrbixOTM 3.0 with Java and security

support for E-commerce applications,

– BEA’s M3 system.

• Agent-based workflow management systems still have a long path ahead before they will effectively address QoS issues.

Open Issues for Workflow InteroperabilityOpen Issues for Workflow Interoperability

• Only concrete implementations of standards (e.g., SWAP{, jFLOW) can provide real feedback for the improvement of such interoperability standards.

– Need to go beyond their capabilities (Sync nodes in METEOR).

• The interoperability solutions need to evolve towards multi-protocol and more heterogeneous middleware environments.

• The current interoperability specifications do not support organizational aspects in any significant way.

Open Issues for AdaptabilityOpen Issues for Adaptability

• If cases need to be transferred from an existing process

definition to a new process definition,

the use of a replication or a versioning mechanism will not

suffice.

• The term ‘dynamic change’ refers to the problem

of handling old cases in a new workflow process definition.

How to transfer cases to a new version of the process?

New concepts and techniques are needed to avoid

anomalies caused by the dynamic change problem.

SummarySummary

• In the networked economy characterized by speed and distribution of both technological progress and business activities, an organic process technology will provide an integration fabric as well as key differentiator.

• Our view:

– Much of the future innovations as well as commercial activities will come about by the process technology as part of other key products and solutions, such as in EAI and E-commerce markets, that will power networked enterprises.

– On technology side, coordination, collaboration and information systems will continued to come closer to develop a new class of technology.

Additional InformationAdditional Information

RIDE’99 Proceedeings

Dogac et al NATO ASI Proceedings

A.P. Sheth, W.M.P. van der Aalst, and I.B. Arpinar

Processes Driving the Networked Economy:Process Portals, Process Vortexes, and Dynamically Trading Processes