Software Architecture for the Real Time Scheduling of Workflow Management Systems based on a Petri net model

Abstract

In this paper, an approach is proposed to solve the scheduling problem of Workflow Management Systems. The proposed approach uses an activity diagram to show the main activities and the different routings of the Workflow Process. Based on the obtained activity diagram, the corresponding p-time Petri net model is produced. Hybrid resource allocation mechanisms are modelled by an hybrid Petri net in order to represent discrete and continuous resources. Then, a token player algorithm is applied to an example of “Handle Complaint Process” in order to obtain an acceptable scenario corresponding to a specific sequence of activities which respects the time constraints. Finally, a software architecture is proposed for the real time scheduling of Workflow Management Systems.