Process enactment support in a distributed environment

Abstract

This paper proposes a conceptual framework and supporting architecture for general-purpose process modeling and enactment. The framework includes abstractions of all critical entities and their relationships needed to model complex tasks in a distributed environment. We are able to support multi-paradigm process descriptions, since the support system only sees process execution as operations executed by agents. We do, however support division and delegation of activities. The supporting architecture is based on industry-standard communication and distribution mechanisms (CORBA) in order to make the services available to a wide variety of computers, operating systems, and communication protocols. We propose a way to integrate process modelling and enaction with existing configuration management systems and other repositories responsible for the storage and management of the artifacts handled by the processes. Possible application areas for the proposed system include software engineering, other design processes, logistics control, office automation, and enhanced electronic communication.