We present a model for developing rule-based process servers with extensible syntax and semantics. New process enactment directives can be added to the syntax of the process modeling language, in which the process designer may specify specialized behavior for particular tasks or task segments. The process engine is peppered with callbacks to instance-specific code in order to implement any new directives and to modify the default enactment behavior and the kind of assistance that the process-centered environment provides to process participants. We realized our model in the Amber process server, and describe how we exploited Amber's extensibility to replace Oz's native process engine with Amber and to integrate the result with a mockup of TeamWare. 1. Introduction The essential concept underlying Process-Centered Environments (PCEs) is language-based extensibility. That is, each PCE provides a language in which users specify the desired tailoring of the system's behavior to their part...

Awork#ow management systems #WFMS# employs a work#ow manager #WM# to execute and automate the various activities within a work#ow. To protect the con# sistency of data# the WM encapsulates each activity with a transaction# a transaction manager #TM# then guarantees the atomicity of activities. Since work#ows often group several activities together# the TM is responsible for guaranteeing the atomicity of these units. There are scalability issues# however# with centralized WFMSs. Decentralized WFMSs provide an architecture for multiple autonomous WFMSs to interoperate# thus accommodating multiple work#ows and geographically#dispersed teams. When atomic units are composed of activities spread across multiple WFMSs# however# there is a con#ict between global atomicity and local autonomyofeach WFMS. This paper de# scribes a decentralized atomicity model that enables work#ow administrators to specify the scope of multi#site atomicity based upon the desired semantics of multi#site ...

The notion of temporary networks is a paradigm that is more and more applied in industry, where a company outsources part of its activities to changing suppliers at each new project. Selecting the right supplier for a defined activity and coordinating the execution of this outsourced activity are keys to the success of such temporary cooperation. The nature of selecting the right supplier can be a complex decision, usually following an unstructured process and taking a long time to complete. Today’s business companies are faced with an increasingly competitive and hostile environment. To survive, they will have to constantly develop newer and better methods for speeding this decision-making process, as well as for a good coordination with the temporary executor. This paper reports the first results of an ongoing research project investigating a new concept of electronic business-to-business relationship model. This model is based on a federation of electronic marketplaces that enables the outsourcer to select the optimal supplier for a given activity and to monitor its execution. The selection of the optimal supplier is based on searching with specific selection criteria that will later facilitate the monitoring of execution. A mobile agent technology and a federation of electronic market places support a scenario where multiple outsourcers, multiple suppliers and multiple marketplaces are coordinated asynchronously, bringing benefits to all parties. In order to build a reliable business model, the Swissmetro project has been chosen as a case study to define the data flow and business process management for the selection and execution phases. 1-

We present a process server component with extensible syntax and semantics. New process enactment directives can be added to the syntax of the process modeling language, which we deem a "process assembly language" because it supports translation from higher-level process formalisms for enactment by the "process virtual machine", or process engine. The process engine is parameterized by callbacks to instance-specific mediator code in order to implement any new directives and to modify the default enactment behavior. The mediator architecture also enables integration with a wide variety of existing environment architectures, including adding on process to an environment without such a facility, replacement of an existing process engine, and interoperability with an existing process system. Keywords: Component-based environment architectures, Interoperability, Multi-site environments, Petri nets, Process automation, Rules, Task graphs c fl1996, Gail E. Kaiser, Steven S. Popovic...

. Complex development processes which cross organizational boundaries require specialized support by process management systems. Such processes are planned in a top-down manner. A suitable cooperation model for these processes is the delegation of process parts. Because the client and the contractor of a delegation may be independent organizations they may have diverging interest concerning autonomy of process execution, information-hiding, control, etc. We propose a concept for delegating process parts which takes these interests into account and describe how delegation is implemented in the process management system AHEAD. Keywords: process modeling, process management, interorganization cooperation, delegation, distributed processes 1