Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Symposium on Foundations of Health Informatics Engineering and Systems

FHIES 2012: Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems pp 194–212Cite as

A Formal Diagrammatic Approach to Compensable Workflow Modelling

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 7789))

Abstract

Workflows consist of interconnected tasks which are executed to achieve predefined business goals. When some tasks fail during execution, compensation can be used as an error-handling procedure to remove side-effects of already finished tasks. This paper extends our formal diagrammatic approach to workflow modelling (which uses principles from model-driven engineering (MDE)) to account for the phenomenon of compensation. Both static semantics, represented by instances of workflow models, and dynamic semantics, represented by a transition system, are described. In MDE, models are first class entities of the development process from which executable application code is generated. The use of MDE technologies is especially important for software in health services delivery where processes are safety critical, highly localised and frequently change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   72.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. van der Aalst, W.M.P., van Hee, K.: Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems. MIT Press (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  2. van der Aalst, W.M.P., ter Hofstede, A.H.M.: YAWL: Yet Another Workflow Language. Information Systems 30(4), 245–275 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Ait-Sadoune, I., Ait-Ameur, Y.: Stepwise Design of BPEL Web Services Compositions: An Event_B Refinement Based Approach. In: Lee, R., Ormandjieva, O., Abran, A., Constantinides, C. (eds.) SERA 2010. SCI, vol. 296, pp. 51–68. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Barr, M., Wells, C.: Category Theory for Computing Science, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bruni, R., Melgratti, H., Montanari, U.: Theoretical Foundations for Compensations in Flow Composition Languages. In: POPL 2005, pp. 209–220. ACM (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Brüning, J., Gogolla, M., Forbrig, P.: Modeling and Formally Checking Workflow Properties Using UML and OCL. In: Forbrig, P., Günther, H. (eds.) BIR 2010. LNBIP, vol. 64, pp. 130–145. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Butler, M., Hoare, T., Ferreira, C.: A trace semantics for long-running transactions. In: Abdallah, A.E., Jones, C.B., Sanders, J.W. (eds.) CSP25. LNCS, vol. 3525, pp. 133–150. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Chen, Z., Liu, Z., Wang, J.: Failure-Divergence Semantics and Refinement of Long Running Transactions. Theoretical Computer Science (to appear)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Damas, C., Lambeau, B., Roucoux, F., van Lamsweerde, A.: Analyzing critical process models through behavior model synthesis. In: ICSE 2009, pp. 441–451. IEEE Computer Society (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Diskin, Z.: Mathematics of Generic Specifications for Model Management I and II. In: Encyclopedia of Database Technologies and Applications, pp. 351–366. Information Science Reference (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Diskin, Z., Kadish, B., Piessens, F., Johnson, M.: Universal Arrow Foundations for Visual Modeling. In: Anderson, M., Cheng, P., Haarslev, V. (eds.) Diagrams 2000. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 1889, pp. 345–360. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Ehrig, H., Ehrig, K., Prange, U., Taentzer, G.: Fundamentals of Algebraic Graph Transformation. Springer (March 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ghamarian, A., de Mol, M., Rensink, A., Zambon, E., Zimakova, M.: Modelling and analysis using GROOVE. STTT, 1–26 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kindler, E.: Model-based software engineering and process-aware information systems. In: Jensen, K., van der Aalst, W.M.P. (eds.) ToPNoC II. LNCS, vol. 5460, pp. 27–45. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Lamo, Y., Wang, X., Mantz, F., MacCaull, W., Rutle, A.: DPF Workbench: A Diagrammatic Multi-Layer Domain Specific (Meta-)Modelling Environment. In: Lee, R. (ed.) Computer and Information Science 2012. SCI, vol. 429, pp. 37–52. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Lapadula, A., Pugliese, R., Tiezzi, F.: Specifying and Analysing SOC Applications with COWS. In: Degano, P., De Nicola, R., Meseguer, J. (eds.) Concurrency, Graphs and Models. LNCS, vol. 5065, pp. 701–720. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. OASIS: Web services business process execution language version 2.0 (2007), http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsbpel/2.0/OS/wsbpel-v2.0-OS.html

  18. Object Management Group: MDA Guide (June 2003), http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?omg/03-06-01

  19. OMG: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) Version 2.0 (January 2011), http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/

  20. Ottensooser, A., Fekete, A., Reijers, H.A., Mendling, J., Menictas, C.: Making sense of business process descriptions: An experimental comparison of graphical and textual notations. Journal of Systems and Software 85(3), 596–606 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ouyang, C., Dumas, M., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., van der Aalst, W.M.P.: From BPMN Process Models to BPEL Web Services. In: ICWS, pp. 285–292. IEEE Computer Society (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Rabbi, F.: Design, Development and Verification of a Compensable Workflow Modeling Language. Master’s thesis, Dept. of Math, Stats and CS, StFX University, Canada (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rabbi, F., MacCaull, W.: T □: A Domain Specific Language for Rapid Workflow Development. In: France, R.B., Kazmeier, J., Breu, R., Atkinson, C. (eds.) MODELS 2012. LNCS, vol. 7590, pp. 36–52. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Rutle, A.: Diagram Predicate Framework: A Formal Approach to MDE. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Rutle, A., MacCaull, W., Wang, H., Lamo, Y.: A Metamodelling Approach to Behavioural Modelling. In: BM-FA 2012, pp. 5:1–5:10. ACM (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Rutle, A., Rossini, A., Lamo, Y., Wolter, U.: A formal approach to the specification and transformation of constraints in MDE. JLAP 81(4), 422–457 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Wang, H., Rutle, A., MacCaull, W.: A Formal Diagrammatic Approach to Timed Workflow Modelling. In: TASE 2012, pp. 167–174. IEEE Computer Society (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Wong, P.Y.H., Gibbons, J.: A Process Semantics for BPMN. In: Liu, S., Araki, K. (eds.) ICFEM 2008. LNCS, vol. 5256, pp. 355–374. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Logic and Information, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada

    Adrian Rutle, Hao Wang & Wendy MacCaull

  2. Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Aalesund University College, Norway

    Adrian Rutle

Authors
  1. Adrian Rutle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hao Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wendy MacCaull
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, V8W 3P6, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Jens Weber

  2. Inserm, 101 rue de Tolbiac, 75013, Paris, France

    Isabelle Perseil

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Rutle, A., Wang, H., MacCaull, W. (2013). A Formal Diagrammatic Approach to Compensable Workflow Modelling. In: Weber, J., Perseil, I. (eds) Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems. FHIES 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7789. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39088-3_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39088-3_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39087-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39088-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation