Enabling Runtime Adaptation ofWorkflows to External Events in Enterprise Environments

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of Heterogeneous Event Management Middleware (HEMM) that integrates events across multiple siloed workflow management systems (WFMS) in enterprises. Specifically, we address the issue where a high-level change (e.g. change in business policy or rolling out of a new service) necessitates external events (generated from other enterprise system) to be handled by running workflow (WF) instances in the WFMS. Current solutions either require a change in the workflow process definition or change in the workflow engine - both being cost intensive solutions from an enterprise 's point of view since they compromise on enterprise backend downtime. HEMM circumvents this by introducing an overlay on top of existing WFMS and abstracting out unforeseen event handling from workflows. At the same time, it employs event transformation to map events to appropriate event handlers of running workflow instances, enabling them to adapt to new events that their process definitions do not handle. We demonstrate our prototype implementation with the example of rolling out a bundled service that is prevalent in telecom industry.