Rule-driven Workflow Enactment

Rule driven workflow enactment by Adriaan van Os (Soops) & Tim Verwaart (LEI - Wageningen UR)

At ESUG 2004 we presented the Artis system for model-driven information systems behaviour in multiple contexts. In this system a combination of data models and business rules completely specifies the information need in some particular context. The data model specifies object types and their mutual relations that may be relevant in a context. However, this is not sufficient. To specify the information need we also need rules for:

• Relevance: under what conditions is it relevant to be informed about the the object types, their variables, their associations?
• Integrity: what quality constraints do the data have to satisfy?
• Actuality: when do we need to be informed; what delay is acceptable?

In our presentation we will explain how the rules are related to the data model, demonstrate the user interface for editing the data model and the rules, explain the Smalltalk code for editing, parsing, and interpretation of the rules. The rules are used for generic enactment of workflow. If relevant data are not available, if data violate integrity rules, or if data no longer satisfy actuality rules, procedures (tasks) are automatically scheduled in to-do lists of responsible employees. We will explain the mechanisms (and Smalltalk code) for rule-based decisions to schedule procedures and for determination of the responsible employees.

Adriaan van Os has been working with Smalltalk, mainly VisualWorks, at Soops since 1995. He is the main architect/developer of the presented system and is involved in some CampSmalltalk projects. Tim Verwaart has been working in the fields of database systems, statistics and information management since 1979. He manages the information systems department of LEI since 1992 and was the project manager of the presented system.