Applying Propositional Logic to Workflow Verification

Abstract

The increasing complexity of business processes in the era of e-business has heightened the need for workflow verification tools. However, workflow verification remains an open and challenging research area. As an indication, most of commercial workflow management systems do not yet provide workflow designers with formal workflow verification tools. We propose a logic-based verification method that is based on a well-known formalism, i.e., propositional logic. Our logic-based workflow verification approach has distinct advantages such as its rigorous yet simplistic logical formalism and its ability to handle generic activity-based process models. In this paper, we present the theoretical framework for applying propositional logic to workflow verification and demonstrate that logic-based workflow verification is capable of detecting process anomalies in workflow models.