Business process management with group features in pervasive environments

Abstract

AbstractThe interaction modality constrained to desktop PC between users and workflow management system is one of the main factors obstructing the wide application of business processes in pervasive computing environments. In addition, the increasingly complicated and flexible group activities have been a salient feature of current business processes. Traditional workflow management systems have difficulties in supporting such features. With the introduction of new modeling methods and the improvement of executing mechanism of traditional workflow model, a group‐enabled workflow management system capable of interacting with users in multiple modalities is designed and implemented. Compared with the traditional workflow modeling methods, this method has more capabilities in describing group activities and makes modeling simpler. This paper introduces the new modeling method for multifold group activities as well as the mechanism supporting interaction between users and systems with multiple modalities. Then some outcomes and findings in the applications of the system are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.