Design And Implementation Of A Workflow Engine Of Software Process Based On WfMC

Workflow technology first appeared in the office automation field, and then gradually used in Banks, finance and other fields, which leads the trends of application automatics. To introduce workflow technology into software process area, is to realize the automation of software process management, thereby enhancing the productivity of the software industry,standardizing the software process management, and reducing the economic losses which is caused by human factors such as the delay of the schedule and the project budget errors. No matter how the economic benefits is or the development of the software industries are, the combination of workflow technology and software process is worthy for research.Workflow engine is the core of workflow management system(WFMS). Based on the WfMC standard, the workflow description language (XPDL) has been extended and designed to achieve a common workflow engine interface, so that it can be used to describe any kind of software process models, Based on the objectives above, the paper first described basic knowledge of the workflow technology and software process, and the feasibility of combining workflow technology with software process; Then introduced the definition and expanded XPDL's grammar with an example of testing process model, which was described by the extended XPDL; the primary functions of the workflow engine is parsing XPDL document, which is also a prerequisite for the implementation of other functions. So that a given chapter is included to introduce the details. XPDL parsing mainly used DOM technology, the programming used three tiers structure, establishing the class which is correspond to the XPDL elements, facilitate a variety of operating element node. In order to avoid operating the entire document too frequently, we abstracted the basic state information of the engine, process, activity from class, and saved it to the relational database, so that to monitoring and managing the process. Workflow engine includes several main functions such as activity management, process management and task lists distribution; in addition, it has the auxiliary function such as reminding of task time out and system abnormal by providing corresponding leaders with messages.Through the example the basic function and the auxiliary function of the workflow engine are verified through an example of RUP model, that it manages the software development process well. The most character of the RUP model can be cut, users can customize the software according to the actual demands, while the XPDL can describe software process model, so the workflow engine can be suitable for most software process model for automation management.Finally, we summarized the work and planned the next stage.