Context based execution prioritization in Workflow-Management-Systems

• US 6,976,257 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2001
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Leymann, Frank, Roller, Dieter
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong, Camquy
• Application Number:
  US09/752,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20010021913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,806 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/38, 718/103
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The invention relates to a computerized method of managing workload within a Workflow-Management-System (WFMS) said WFMS comprising a process model, said process model comprising one or more activities being the nodes of an arbitrary graph, and directed edges of said graph defining a potential control flow within said process-model.

The inventions suggests a determination step, wherein the process model is analyzed if a priority execution specification is assigned to said one activity comprising at least one Boolean predicate and a priority level.

In a launching step said Boolean predicate is evaluated using a variable value not comprised in the process model but the variable value being comprised in a context of an instance of the process-model. If the Boolean predicate evaluates to TRUE, the launching step launches execution of said one activity in said activity'"'"'s execution environment with an execution priority specified according to the priority level.

Claims

1. A computerized method of managing workload within a Workflow-Management-System (WFMS) said method being executable by said WFMS on at least one computer system, said WFMS comprising a process-model, said process-model comprising one or more activities being nodes of an arbitrary graph, and directed edges of said graph defining a potential control-flow within said process-model, said method comprising the steps of:

analyzing said process-model to determine if a priority-execution-specification is assigned to said one activity comprising at least one Boolean-predicate and a priority-level, and

in an affirmative case, evaluating said Boolean-predicate using a variable-value not comprised in said process-model but said variable-value being comprised in a context of an instance of said process-model, and,

if said Boolean-predicate evaluates to be TRUE, launching execution of said one activity in said activity'"'"'s execution-environment, said WFMS setting its own execution-priority for the WFMS-internal processing relating to said one activity with respect to the WFMS'"'"'s execution-environment to the execution-priority specified according to said priority-level.

2. A method of managing workload within WFMS according to claim 1, wherein said Boolean-predicate is evaluated just before launching execution of said one activity to base said evaluation on a most current context.

3. A method of managing workload within the WFMS according to claim 1, wherein said context comprises a data storage shared between activities, wherein said context comprises an global container of said instance of said process-model, wherein said context comprises an input-container of said one activity, and wherein said context comprises an output-container of a certain activity.

4. A method of managing workload within the WFMS according to claim 1 wherein said WFMS comprises at least one WFMS-client and at least one WFMS-server, wherein, if an instance of said process-model has not been instantiated yet, said WFMS-client evaluates said Boolean-predicate, and said WFMS-client sends a START message via a communication-system to said WFMS-server setting said message to a message-priority corresponding to said priority level, and said communication-system being responsive to said message-priority by handling its delivery according to said priority-level, and said WFMS-server being responsive to said message-priority by instantiating said process-model and launching execution of said instance of said process-model according to said priority-level.

5. A method of managing workload within the WFMS according to claim 1, wherein, if said Boolean-predicate evaluates to TRUE, one or more messages for communication within said WFMS and/or between different WFMS and/or with said activity via a communication-system said message relating to the processing of said activity are set to the execution-priority specified according to said priority-level.

6. A method of managing workload within the WFMS according to claim 1, wherein, if said priority-execution-specification is specified with said process-model, said method further comprises the step of assigning said priority-execution-specification to all activities comprised by said process-model, wherein, if said priority-execution-specification is specified with a performance-sphere, said performance-sphere comprising a sub-graph of said process-model, said method further comprises the step of assigning said process-execution-specification to all activities within said performance-sphere, and wherein, if said priority-execution-specification is specified with said one activity, said method further comprises the step of assigning said process-execution-specification to said one activity.