Research And Design Of The Dynamic Workflow Model Based On The Rule Engine

With the deepening of information technology, IT technology has infiltrated into the operation of enterprises in all aspects of production. Workflow management technology is from an efficiency point of view by improving the overall collaboration efficiency of enterprises to improve production, which would provide business support in all activities of the business process. Therefore, the use of enterprise information systems workflow management technology, could significantly improve the coordination of business process efficiency and control to achieve the overall business process to maximize efficiency.However, gaps and limitations are exist in the existing workflow system model in real business applications as follows: First of all, the existing workflow system is relatively static operation mode, run-time rules can not be changed; In addition, the majority of workflow systems are the lack of central rules database, the application of rules and strategies for the lack of a centralized management mechanism; in responding to complex and ever-changing business rules, the workflow system can not deal with the complexity of the rules and quickly respond to change.Therefore, this paper presents a rule-based dynamic workflow engine model REBWMS (Rule-Engine-Based Workflow Manager System). The introduction of the use of business process rules engine, with an idea of separation of business rules, which can be a good solution to the above-mentioned three issues. After separation, Business rules have been open for three services: decision-making rules (Decision Rules) service, rules of action (Action Rules) and the task rules (Task Rules) services. The process query the engine to take advantage of the decision rules to determine the dynamics of flow processes when reaching the decision point; in relation to a large number of business logic and rules, the process would call the action rules service, rule engine would simplify business management and accelerate the process of implementation; in dealing with complex distribution of tasks, the process can call the task rule service to simplify the business management. This more flexible approach can significantly reduce maintenance costs.In this paper, an in-depth research is conducted on this rule-engine-based workflow system. First there is a summary of workflow and workflow management system on the basic concepts, and a research on the problems and the status quo of the workflow management system. Then it introduced the concept of the business rule and rule engine, and their role to play in the system. On analyzing the architecture and the working mechanism of the rule engine carefully, a conclusion of the usage scenarios of rule engine is given. After that, rule engine is then introduced to the workflow system with a model. It designed the architecture of the rule-engine-based workflow model, with process management and rules management and rule engine service model, and conducted a study on the dynamic modify strategy of the processes of this system. At the end of this paper, an on-line orders prototype system is designed and achieved to verify the feasibility of the REBWMS model.