Workflow Monitoring Research Articles

Creating an Agency Integrated Treatment Program for Co-occurring Disorders

This article concerns the creation of a community agency's integrated mental illness and substance abuse co-occurring disorders assessment and treatment program, with a focus on the barriers and strategies encountered as its development progressed. The discussion of barriers was framed according to the factors (attitude, mastery, leadership, staffing, policies, workflow, and program monitoring) identified by Moser and colleagues (Moser, DeLuca, Bond, & Rollins, 2004) in their comparison of the implementation of Assertive Community Treatment and Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment. It was found that resolution of these barriers was important to the implementation of this program.

분산 트랜잭션 워크플로우 모니터링 시스템의 설계 및 구현

This paper describes the design and implementation details of a distributed transactional workflow monitoring system. There have been prevalent research and development trends in the workflow literature - workflow systems tend to be completely distributed architectures to support very large-scale workflow applications on object-oriented and internet-based infrastructures. That is, the active (object), distributed (architecture), system-oriented (transaction), and large-scale (application) workflow systems are the key targets in terms of the research and development aspects. While the passive, centralized, human-oriented, and small/medium scale workflow systems are the typical instances of the traditional workflow systems. Unlike in the traditional (the client-server architecture) workflow systems, the workflow monitoring features should not be easily supported in the recent (the fully distributed architecture) workflow systems. At the same time, they need a set of additional monitoring features, such as gathering and displaying statistical (or overload status) information of the workflow architectural components dispersed on the internet. We, in this paper, introduce the additional workflow monitoring features that are necessarily required for the recent workflow systems, and show how to embed those features into a web-based distributed workflow system.

Dynamic Instrumentation, Performance Monitoring and Analysis of Grid Scientific Workflows

While existing work concentrates on developing QoS models of business workflows and Web services, few tools have been developed to support the monitoring and performance analysis of scientific workflows in Grids. This paper describes novel Grid services for dynamic instrumentation of Grid-based applications, performance monitoring and analysis of Grid scientific workflows. We describe a Grid dynamic instrumentation service that provides a widely accessible interface for other services and users to conduct the dynamic instrumentation of Grid applications during the runtime. We introduce a Grid performance analysis service for Grid scientific workflows. The analysis service utilizes various types of data including workflow graphs, monitoring data of resources, execution status of activities, and performance measurements obtained from the dynamic instrumentation of invoked applications, and provides a rich set of functionalities and features to support the online monitoring and performance analysis of scientific workflows. Workflows and their relevant information including performance metrics are stored and utilized for comparing the performance of constructs of different workflows and for supporting multi-workflow analysis.

The design of intelligent workflow monitoring with agent technology

In recent years, workflow technology has been widely used in business process management. With the increased complexity, uncertainty and risks in business operations, workflow monitoring is gaining growing attention in business process controlling and supervision. However, monitoring functions provided in traditional workflow systems lack flexibility, and provide little support for managing complex and dynamical changes in business process. In this paper, we propose a novel workflow monitoring approach, in which various intelligent agents work together to perform flexible monitoring tasks in an autonomous and collaborative way. By using customized monitoring plan and proactive monitoring process, the workflow monitoring activities can be executed flexibly and efficiently. The application of intelligent agents for such flexible, adaptive and collaborative workflow monitoring is investigated through an intelligent monitoring system in securities trading.

Customizable Workflow Monitoring

We have considered the customization of monitoring services in Workflow Management System (WFMS). WFMS is a software tool to manage business processes effectively and efficiently. An important function of WFMS is monitoring, and WFMS usually involves many monitoring users having different responsibilities, roles, and preferences. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework of customization for workflow monitoring that can produce a monitoring environment fitted to each user’s requirements. We have identified four components in customizing the workflow monitoring: data objects, analysis methods, presentation styles, and audit events. We have also developed a customization model, called monitoring template, to combine the components. A participant can specify each of the components on a template based on the participant’s own preference, which will then be used to provide workflow monitoring services that are automatically customized for the user. A prototype system has been implemented on top of a commercial WFMS to demonstrate the effectiveness of the customizable workflow monitoring.

OP-Management aus der Sicht des Chirurgen

Eine der wichtigsten Betriebsstellen der Krankenhäuser ist der Operations-(OP-)Bereich. Aufgrund seiner zentralen Funktion mit Schnittstellen zu anderen Abteilungen wird der OP-Bereich zu einer Art Kristallisationspunkt vorhandener Mängel in Abläufen und Prozessen. Eine Personalbefragung in einem chirurgischen Zentral-OP ergab als Hauptmängel Kommunikationsprobleme und unzuverlässige OP-Planung ohne Berücksichtigung von Bedürfnissen der Patienten oder der Mitarbeiter. Allgemeiner Wunsch war die Etablierung einer zentralen OP-Organisation sowie die Benennung eines Ansprechpartners für die OP-Organisation (gleichbedeutend OP-Manager). Kurz nach Ernennung eines OP-Managers konnte eine spürbare Verbesserung der Personalzufriedenheit verzeichnet werden. Es konnte eine Kapazitätssteigerung erzielt werden, die Organisierbarkeit war deutlich besser. Notfälle konnten früher eingebunden werden und die Belastungen der Mitarbeiter während der Bereitschaftsdienstzeiten konnte reduziert werden. Das vorliegende Beispiel konnte zeigen, dass wenige Grundmaßnahmen innerhalb kürzester Zeit (1 Jahr) dazu führen, dass grundlegende Organisationsstrukturen geändert werden, dass die Kapazität erweitert werden kann unter Beibehaltung der Rahmenbedingungen und dass die Belastung des Personals reduziert werden kann. Dennoch ist das Projekt nicht abgeschlossen. Strukturelle Verbesserung für die Zukunft sind im OP-Monitoring zu sehen. Auch das verbesserte OP-Controlling wird in der Zukunft dazu führen, dass weitere Eingriffe in die Betriebszeiten erforderlich sein werden. Im Hinblick auf die zu erwartende DRG-Problematik ist auf diese Weise eine Transparenz des Operationsbetriebes möglich.

Multi-agent collaboration for B2B workflow monitoring

Business-to-business (B2B) applications environments are exceedingly dynamic and competitive. This dynamism is manifested in the form of changing process requirements and time constraints. However, current workflow management technologies have difficulties to solve the challenges problems, such as: how to deal with the dynamic nature of B2B commerce processes, how to manage the distributed knowledge and recourses, and how to reduce the transaction risk. In this paper, a collaborative multi-agent system has been proposed. Multiple intelligent agents in our system can work together not only to identify the workflow problems, but also to solve such problems, by applying business rules, such as re-organizing the procurement and the transaction processes, and making necessary workflow process changes.

Workflow history management

A workflow history manager maintains the information essential for workflow monitoring and data mining as well as for recovery and authorization purposes.Certain characteristics of workflow systems like the necessity to run these systems on heterogeneous, autonomous and distributed environments and the nature of data, prevent history management in workflows to be handled by the classical data management techniques like distributed DBMSs. We further demonstrate that multi-database query processing techniques are also not appropriate for the problem at hand.In this paper, we describe history management, i.e., the structure of the history and querying of the history, in a fully distributed workflow architecture realized in conformance with Object Management Architecture (OMA) of OMG. By fully distributed architecture we mean that the scheduler of the workflow system is distributed and in accordance with this, the history objects related with activities are stored on data repositories (like DBMSs, files) available at the sites involved. We describe the structure of the history objects determined according to the nature of the data and the processing needs, and the possible query processing strategies on these objects using the Object Query Service of OMG. We then present the comparison of these strategies according to a cost model developed.

The MENTOR workbench for enterprise-wide workflow management

MENTOR (“Middleware for Enterprise-Wide Workflow Management”) is a joint project of the University of the Saarland, the Union Bank of Switzerland, and ETH Zurich [1, 2, 3]. The focus of the project is on enterprise-wide workflow management. Workflows in this category may span multiple organizational units each unit having its own workflow server, involve a variety of heterogeneous information systems, and require many thousands of clients to interact with the workflow management system (WFMS). The project aims to develop a scalable and highly available environment for the execution and monitoring of workflows, seamlessly integrated with a specification and verification environment. For the specification of workflows, MENTOR utilizes the formalism of state and activity charts. The mathematical rigor of the specification method establishes a basis for both correctness reasoning and for partitioning of a large workflow into a number of subworkflows according to the organizational responsibilities of the enterprise. For the distributed execution of the partitioned workflow specification, MENTOR relies mostly on standard middleware components and adds own components only where the standard components fall short of functionality or scalability. In particular, the run-time environment is based on a TP monitor and a CORBA implementation.

Improving report turnaround time: an integrated method using data from a radiology information system.

In the face of a changing health care system and increased competition, radiology departments need to become more efficient. One measurement of efficiency is promptness in producing a final report. Many large radiology centers have radiology information systems (RIS) that track work flow, collecting tremendous amounts of data. Most, however, lack an appropriate analytic mechanism. We have developed an integrated system that allows continual monitoring of radiology work flow and thus of opportunities to apply interventions. This system can form an important component of the quality management process in the radiology department. In developing the system, we identified seven key steps in the work-flow process. When left to chance, these steps occur out of sequence and large delays occur. A scheme was devised to improve the sequencing of the work flow by using the data collected from the RIS, sorted by radiology division and patient type. Biweekly, the appropriate data file is transferred to each division for analysis, via the department's computer network. A one-step process follows, using desktop Macintosh computers and a custom program written in Microsoft Excel. Extracted data are quickly converted into a tailored division summary, and a report is automatically generated. The result summary format is uniform throughout the department, allowing ease of review at divisional and departmental meetings. Problems can be immediately localized to a specific step in the work-flow process. Automation of much of the system allows continual, near-real-time review of work flow. Using this approach, we have seen a sustained reduction of average report turnaround time. This system allows continual monitoring of work flow. It is largely automated and lends itself well to inclusion in the quality management program of any radiology department.

Toward greater objectivity: Formal production standards for processing units in libraries

The role of evaluator is virtually universal among technical services librarians. The extent to which political elements intrude in the evaluation process is not always recognized, but any perceptions of unequal bias will erode motivation and organizational effectiveness. Various studies suggest that elective inflation to ratings is more prevalent than conscious deflation. Formal standards, when carefully maintained, can clarify management expectations; enable employees to selfmonitor production; render the evaluation event more predictable and the task of giving negative feedback more impersonal; reduce perceptions of political or personal bias; forestall frivolous litigation by employees; and increase productivity and morale. Formal standards require careful monitoring of work flow and of factors influencing production, and revisions to standards at times may be required. Consistency in the application of standards among staff is essential. The costs of maintaining standards should be weighed against the likely benefits to the organization.