Analysis of Secure Collaboration Plans for Multiple Workflow Processes With Timed Dynamic Relations and Shared Users

In the field of workflow management, a recent hot research point is to analyze secure collaboration plans of multiple workflow processes with dynamic relations and shared users. However, existing research works neither consider the time limits of timed dynamic relations (TDRs), nor analyze the delayed time of activities caused by shared users. In this article, we propose a new approach to analyzing secure collaboration plans of multiple workflow processes with TDRs and user conflicts: 1) we propose the computing patterns for basic structures in workflow processes with TDRs and shared users; 2) we develop the next-generation parametric sprouting graph (NPSG) based on the above patterns; and 3) we obtain the optimal secure collaboration plan based on NPSG. Compared with the existing methods, our approach can effectively deal with the problem of collaboration plans with TDRs and shared users. Furthermore, our approach is more efficient, because NPSG of multiple workflow processes can be constructed in parallel and its recommendation ability is improved by deleting invalid paths in advance.