Comparing Petri Net and Activity Diagram Variants for Workflow Modelling – A Quest for Reactive Petri Nets

Eshuis, Rik; Wieringa, Roel

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-40022-6_16

Cited by 60 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…UML activity diagrams [97] have also been extended and applied to be a workflow specification language [17][44] [100]. Compared with UML activity diagrams, Petri Nets have formal semantics and have been used widely for constructing several workflows [1] [45]. A vast number of algorithms and tools for Petri Nets analysis have been developed along the years [84].…”

Section: Workflow Composition Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Eshuis et. al [45] argues that Petri Nets may be unable to model workflow activities accurately without extending its semantics and this drawback has been addressed in UML activity diagrams. Rather than following the standard syntax and semantics of Petri Nets and UML, many workflow editors for Grid workflow tools create their own graphical representation of workflow components.…”

Section: Workflow Composition Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Taxonomy of Workflow Management Systems for Grid Computing

2005

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With the advent of Grid and application technologies, scientists and engineers are building more and more complex applications to manage and process large data sets, and execute scientific experiments on distributed resources. Such application scenarios require means for composing and executing complex workflows. Therefore, many efforts have been made towards the development of workflow management systems for Grid computing. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy that characterizes and classifies various approaches for building and executing workflows on Grids. We also survey several representative Grid workflow systems developed by various projects world-wide to demonstrate the comprehensiveness of the taxonomy. The taxonomy not only highlights the design and engineering similarities and differences of state-of-the-art in Grid workflow systems, but also identifies the areas that need further research.

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Section: Workflow Composition Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Workflow Composition Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Taxonomy of Workflow Management Systems for Grid Computing

2005

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“…The design choices in both semantics are based on existing statechart semantics. The token-game semantics was not used, because that semantics is not reactive [12,13]. Even though reactive nets are more reactive than Petri nets having a token-game semantics, there still exist a lot of subtle differences between activity diagrams and reactive nets.…”

Section: Uml Activity Diagramsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, activity diagrams can have data, whereas reactive nets can not. (Data can be modeled by switching to colored nets, but activity diagrams also differ from colored Petri nets [12,13].) Consequently, in reactive WF nets, conflicting decision transitions (for example ok and not ok in Fig.…”

Section: Uml Activity Diagramsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reactive Petri Nets for Workflow Modeling

Eshuis¹,

Dehnert²

2003

Applications and Theory of Petri Nets 2003

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Abstract. Petri nets are widely used for modeling and analyzing workflows. Using the token-game semantics, Petri net-based workflow models can be analyzed before the model is actually used at run time. At run time, a workflow model prescribes behavior of a reactive system (the workflow engine). But the token-game semantics models behavior of closed, active systems. Thus, the token-game semantics behavior of a Petri net-based workflow model will differ considerably from its behavior at run time. In this paper we define a reactive semantics for Petri nets. This semantics can model behavior of a reactive system and its environment. We compare this semantics with the token-game semantics and prove that under some conditions the reactive semantics and the token-game semantics induce similar behavior. Next, we apply the reactive semantics to workflow modeling and show how a workflow net can be transformed into a reactive workflow net. We prove that under some conditions the soundness property of a workflow net is preserved when the workflow net is transformed into a reactive workflow net. This result shows that to analyze soundness, the token-game semantics can safely be used, even though that semantics is not reactive.

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X‐Folders: documents on the move

Rossi

2005

Concurrency and Computation

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SUMMARYX-Folders is a software environment for multi-party document-based processes that aims at supporting the implementation of workflows involving multiple users that interact by means of documents stored in special, reactive, folders: the X-Folders. A reaction in X-Folders is a program whose control flow depends on the status of the folder and whose actions are invocations of local services (that can be used to interact with the documents in the folders) or of services exposed by external components. The actions performed by the actors and the reactions fired by the system flow in a sequence that drives to the accomplishment of the workflow process coordinating humans and software components using documents.

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Comparing Petri Net and Activity Diagram Variants for Workflow Modelling – A Quest for Reactive Petri Nets

Cited by 60 publications

References 41 publications

A Taxonomy of Workflow Management Systems for Grid Computing

A Taxonomy of Workflow Management Systems for Grid Computing

Reactive Petri Nets for Workflow Modeling

X‐Folders: documents on the move

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