Design And Implementation Of Workflow Model Based On Activity Network

Since 1990s, the research and application of workflow technology is becoming a hot topic for research in IT technology. Making a deep research on it has played a very significant role in improving the workflow of enterprises and increasing work quality and efficiency. Whether the workflow model is good or bad is very important to the performance of the whole workflow management system, but at present the related theoretical foundation of workflow modeling is very weak. Thus the author made a research on such aspects.Based on a study of the theoretical foundation of workflow model, this paper analyzes the characteristics, advantages and shortcomings of four typical workflow models, and compares their modeling competence on descriptive ability, situations description, readability, whether they are able to reflect data flow, whether introduce organizational factors, and as well as whether support verification and optimization, etc.. The author puts forward ANOAWFM---a kind of workflow model based on activity network and used in OA (office automation) --- against the changing features of business process in government agencies and the enterprises and institutions. The author mainly consulted WfMC workflow process definition meta-model,made some improvement and expansion on such basis and designed a new meta-model suitable for office automation, which made the established model readable, revisable, and the node element reusable. The new logical nodes indicating business process rules are added in the paper, such as time limit and join node, condition limit and split node, condition limit and join node, etc., which make the model simplified and easy to show complex business process. According to different types of nodes, different state transition rules are designed, thus the evolution speed of the process is increasing. The model designed has a simple structure and is applicable to office automation. In addition, this paper presents a formal description of ANOAWFM based on XML so that it can be more suitable to the application of office automation.In order to certify the feasibility and correctness of ANOAWFM model, the author has used it to model the business process of Anyang Electronic Information College and developed online office system for the school. It is proved that such model is feasible, correct and effective.