Workflow dynamic change and instance migration approach based on polychromatic sets theory

Abstract

Dynamic changes refer to the modifications of workflow model in which some running instances are executing. When the dynamic changes occur, how to migrate the running instances from old workflow model to new workflow model is one of current research hotspots of workflow management technology. Based on polychromatic sets theory, this article proposes a new workflow dynamic change and instance migration approach for workflow management system. The frequent workflow dynamic changes are modelled and described formally. The workflow region is defined and its recognition algorithm is presented. The current running region and the dynamic change region are recognised and sorted in compound workflow model. According to the position sorting results, the selection of migration policies is implemented. A case study on order processing in manufacturing enterprise is provided to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the workflow dynamic change and instance migration approach. With a formal mathematical foundation, the proposed approach reduces the problem size of workflow dynamic changes, decreases the computing complexity of workflow regions recognition, and has flexibility to take the different migration policies corresponding to the different workflow running instances dynamically.