A Formal Modeling Method for Workflow Based on Selection Logic

Abstract

Workflow pattern defines the basic structural characteristics of business processes in workflow system. The support of workflow patterns is an import criterion to measure the expressive ability and applicability of workflow products. On the other hand, the method of workflow pattern isn't a formal method, which will inevitably lead to ambiguity. Formal method can be used to model workflow pattern formally. Yet existing formal methods seem somewhat complicated, which limits their applications in modeling the process. A new selection logic is proposed in this paper, which is optimized for workflow modeling compared with traditional mathematical logic. With the method of new logic form, workflow pattern is divided into merge logic and branch logic, which can not only model the workflow pattern formally and easily. Also, the expression of selection logic has the direct corresponding syntax, which is of great significance to the design of process interpreter.