Error detection of structured workflow definition using set constraint system

Abstract

A workflow definition containing errors might cause serious problems for an enterprise especially when it involves mission critical business processes or inter-organizational interaction. So workflow definitions should be defined in a strict and rigorous way. In this paper, we develop a workflow definition language and analysis methods for the language to support strict and rigorous workflow definitions. Faults or mistakes causing communication deadlock, access conflicts, and improper exception specification in workflow definitions can be detected and notified automatically using the methods. The proposed workflow definition language borrows structured constructs of conventional programming languages because many good features of conventional programming languages also can be used effectively in expressing workflow processes. With slight modifications and scope restrictions, the developed analysis techniques in this paper can be used in any workflow definition languages and they can help workflow designers define workflow processes in much more safe and reliable manner.