Research On Several Questions Of Workflow Model And Its Implementation In BOSS Of Radio & Television Network

Workflow Management System(WfMS in short)emerges from the third separation of application software since Database Management System(DBMS in short)and Human-Machine Interface Management System(HMIMS in short) were separated from common information system.WfMS is not the business application system of an enterprise,but the business operation system which offers a software supporting environment to implement the process integration.Workflow model is the key and basic requirement of a WfMS, and it is the abstract representation of a workflow,i.e.business process. Workflow meta model is the basic part of workflow model,and it describes each element and its attributes within a workflow,and the relationship between them.Therefore,it is the description of workflow model.A workflow model generally consists of process model,organization model, resource model and information model,and the process model is the primary part.Workflow process model consists of logic layer and semantics layer, and workflow pattern is the summarization and generalization of all the repetitiously used conjunctive symbols and its conjunctive relationship in the logic layer of a workflow process model.Based on the review and compare of domestic and overseas research on workflow model,workflow meta model and workflow process model,and aiming on the central questions involved in implementing a WfMS,this paper presents a deep research on the extensibility of meta model,workflow process modeling(including workflow patterns)and implementation of WfMS.An ontology-based extended theory for the workflow meta model is presented in this paper,and the ontological workflow meta model and workflow ontology knowledge base(including concepts of meta model ontology,relationship between the concepts and their attributes,etc.) are also built up.The meta model is extensible for different application areas with an extending mechanism on the inherited relationship between the ontology concepts,and it has dynamical adaptability.In this theory, workflow meta model consists of three layers,which are the kernel layer, the initial extend layer and application extend layer.The kernel layer mainly consists of workflow process model;the initial extend layer is the extension of a workflow process model,and the workflow organization model and workflow information model are involved;The application layer is closely related to the enterprise application,and workflow resource model, enterprise function modet and enterprise value chain model are involved.Our research on workflow process model starts from the case study of a common business process.In this case,two kinds of theories,Petri nets and synchronizer-based layered modeling,are used in analyzing and modeling.Based on the result,the explosion problem of Petri net model is verified,and therefore a conclusion is drawn that the workflow process layered modeling based on Petri net synchronization theory is one of the most suitable ways for workflow process modeling.Secondly,the concept of Petri nets extended synchronizer is presented to solve the problem in formalization research,which is based on Petri net synchronization theory, on logic layer(i.e.workflow pattern)of workflow process layered model. Extended synchronizer is defined to solve the problem that original PN-based(i.e.based on Petri nets)synchronizer cannot directly model some of the workflow patterns,and strengthens the modeling capability on the logic layer of workflow process model.In the end,to solve the explosion problem that a layered process model becomes unconstructive and unreadable when I/O parameters of increase in a process activity,the workflow process net(WFC-net in short),which is based on CPN(i.e.colored Petri nets) theory,is defined to model and verify a layered workflow process.The relevant algorithm and modeling approaches of process model are also presented. Based on the research above,further discussion starts from the business demands,which is the key of Radio & TV BOSS construction,and a workflow meta model is designed for it.The process model,organization model,information model in kernel layer and initial extend layer of the meta model are also designed.In the meanwhile,the workflow engine and WfMS are implemented with workflow process definition and workflow patterns implementation algorithms.Using a UML method,the function model, resource model,value chain model and organization model are designed in the application extend layer of Radio & TV BOSS workflow model.Thus a general design of Radio & TV BOSS is developed and implemented.The implementation of the complete Radio & TV BOSS application system also fills the gap that how workflow technology be applied in Radio & TV industry. This system has been successfully brought into use in Guangzhou Radio & Television Network Company,Ltd.,including over 30 branches and 500 terminals.It has won the Technological Innovation Prize awarded by The State Administration of Radio & Television.(Register No.05B18).