Research And Implementation Of Workflow Management System Based On Multi-Agent

Both workflow and workflow management system are hot research issues in the CSCW research field currently. Based on the cooperative design and management system of a design institute, workflow relevant technology is concerned. A workflow management system based on Multi-Agent is implemented. Workflow engine, process definition, and Multi-Agent system are focused on.Key problems solved in the paper are as follows:1. Workflow system based on Multi-Agent. According to poor flexibility and inter-operation for the traditional WfMS, Multi-Agent technology is introduced into the system.2. Tasks devision based on role. There are two ways to define the activity participants. One is assigning tasks directly to users, which traditional workflow system often adopted; the other is assigning tasks to roles, which the system adopted. It is obvious that the latter is more flexible and reusable than the former.3. Division and simplification of business process. There are various complicated business processes in modern production and management activities. It is necessary to separate the complicated business processes into several simple parts. Hence, Workflow pattern is introduced to meet the demand.4. Flexible workflow modeling. According to poor inter-operation and storage for the traditional WfMS, XPDL is selected, and the implementation of a visual process definition tool is given. The implementation of process definition resolution and storage is also available.5. Workflow supervision based on multi-Agent. A practical system must provide a mechanism of error detection to assure the robustness and stability. After analyzing the error occurrence and the inter-relationship of them, a strategy of detection based on Multi-Agent is discussed and the arithmetic is described.