A process matching approach for flexible workflow process reuse

摘要

Matching between two workflow processes is the key step of workflow process reuse. This paper presents an inexact matching approach for flexible workflow process reuse. A multi-valued process specialization relationship is defined based on the definition of activity specialization and the characteristics of workflow process. The matching degree between two workflow processes is determined by the matching degrees of their corresponding sub-processes or activities. The matching degree between two activities is determined by the activity-distance between them in the activity-ontology repository. A set of process specialization rules enables a new process matching to be derived from he existing matchings. Users are provided with an SQL-like command to retrieve the required processes in an inexact query condition from the workflow -process-ontology repository.