ICN-Based Workflow Model and its Advances

Abstract

This chapter introduces the basic concepts of information control net (ICN) and its workflow models. In principle, a workflow model is the theoretical basis of a workflow modeling methodology as well as a workflow enactment architecture. Particularly, the workflow model is directly related with how its major components are embodied for implementing the underlying workflow enactment system, too. Accordingly, the authors describe the graphical and formal representations of ICN-based workflow model and its advanced models─role-based model and actor-based model─that can be automatically transformed from the ICN-based workflow model in order to improve their verifiability, maintainability and usability. Conclusively stating, we strongly believe that the ICN-based workflow model and its advanced models be very useful not only for maximizing the quality of workflows but also for strengthening theoretical backgrounds of the recent research issues, such as workflow verification/validation, workflow reengineering, workflow intelligence, workflow mining/rediscovery, and advanced workflow architectures, and so on.