A Paradigm for Decentralized Process Modeling

A Paradigm for Decentralized Process Modeling presents a novel approach to decentralized process modeling that combines both trends and suggests a paradigm for decentralized PCEs, supporting concerted efforts among geographically-dispersed teams - each local individual or team with its own autonomous process - with emphasis on flexible control over the degree of collaboration versus autonomy provided. A key guideline in this approach is to supply abstraction mechanisms whereby pre-existing processes (or workflows) can be encapsulated and retain security of their internal artifacts and status data, while agreeing with other processes on formal interfaces through which all their interactions are conducted on intentionally shared information.
This book is primarily intended to provide an in-depth discussion of decentralized process modeling and enactment technology, covering both high-level concepts and a full-blown realization of these concepts in a concrete system. Either the whole book or selected chapters could be used in a graduate course on software engineering, software process, or software development environments, or even for a course on workflow systems outside computer science (e.g., in a classical engineering department for engineering design, or in a business school for business practices or enterprise-wide management, or in the medical informatics department of a health science institution concerned with computer-assistance for managed care). Selected portions of the book, such as section 2.2 on Marvel, could also be employed as a case study in advanced undergraduate software engineering courses.
A Paradigm for Decentralized Process Modeling is a valuable resource for both researchers and practitioners, particularly in software engineering, software development environments, and software process and workflow management, but also in electrical, mechanical, civil and other areas of engineering which have analogous needs for design processes, environmental support and concurrent engineering, and beyond to private and public sector workflow management and control, groupware support, and heterogeneous distributed systems in general.

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1 Introduction.- 1.1 Process Modeling.- 1.2 Why Decentralization ?.- 1.3 A Motivating Example.- 1.4 Research Focus.- 1.5 Requirements.- 2 Previous and Related Work.- 2.1 PCEs.- 2.2 Marvel: The Predecessor PCE.- 2.3 Other Domains.- 3 The Decentralized Model.- 3.1 Definitions.- 3.2 Defining Process Interoperability: the Treaty.- 3.3 Enacting Process Interoperability: the Summit.- 3.4 The Motivating Example Revisited.- 3.5 Application of the Model.- 3.6 Groupware Tools and Delegation in Summits.- 3.7 Extensions and Alternatives to the Decentralized Model.- 4 Realization of the Decentralized Model in Oz.- 4.1 Operational Overview of Oz.- 4.2 Oz Objectbase.- 4.3 Defining Process Interoperability in Oz.- 4.4 Multi-Process Enactment in Oz.- 4.5 Support for Delegation and Groupware in Oz.- 4.6 Implementation Status.- 5 Architectural Support for Decentralization in Oz.- 5.1 Architectural Overview.- 5.2 Communication Infrastructure.- 5.3 A Process for Site Configuration.- 5.4 Context Switching in Summit.- 5.5 The Remote Object Cache.- 5.6 Oz Over the Internet.- 5.7 Implementation Status.- 6 The ISPW Example: Validation and Methodology Issues.- 6.1 Overview of the Scenario.- 6.2 Solution in Oz.- 6.3 Methodology Issues.- 7 Summary, Evaluation, and Future Work.- 7.1 Evaluation.- 7.2 Future Directions.- A Configuration Process Sources.- A.1 Registration Strategy.- A.2 A Sample Oz Envelope.- B The ISPW-9 Problem: Definition and Solution in Oz.- B.1 The ISPW-9 Example.- B.2 Solution in Oz.- References.