Specifying Enterprise Processes with Workflow Modeling Languages

Abstract

In order to build a competitive enterprise which can survive in a global market an enterprise has to be engineered accordingly El makes use of proven techniques such as enterprise engineering methodologies, enterprise reference architectures and generic building blocks to achieve its goals However, having the most comprehensive model is of no use if the concepts modeled cannot be transferred into the real enterprise to adjust its behavior according to the model As many authors have observed the behavior of an enterprise can be best described through enterprise processes or business processes If those could be enacted automatically to drive the daily business operations, a huge step forward would be achieved in the area of model enactment Workflow-Management-Systems (WFMSs) are one class of information systems which enable the automatic enactment of enterprise or business processes on a global and large-scale level A WFMS provides computationally com plete process specification languages as well as execution facilities to drive business operations according to specified business processes This paper introduces a workflow modeling language of a WFMS to illustrate how enterprise processes can be specified with a formal language designed for automatic execution of processes by WFMSs