Resource workflow nets: an approach to workflow modelling and analysis

Abstract

A workflow is the automation of a business process that takes place inside one organisation. Workflow management deals with controlling, monitoring, optimising and supporting workflows. While most of the formal approaches to workflow modelling consider only the process perspective, we propose a Petri net model which integrates both the process and the resource perspective. This article introduces a special class of nested Petri nets, resource workflow nets (RWFN-nets), which unifies the two perspectives into a single model. Unlike other models, RWFN-nets permit a clear distinction between the perspectives, modelling efficiently their interaction and ensure the flexibility of the system. This article also defines a notion of behavioural correctness for RWFN-nets, soundness, and proves that this property is decidable.