Research And Application Of Flexible Workflow On Scientific Project Management

Research management is one of the important works of universities and research institutes. Because it has its own characteristics, research management exists comparatively large uncertainty and dynamic, but general workflow management model cannot fully meet these requirements. This paper proposes the use of the theory and technology of flexible workflow management to solve change problems in research management.At present, many domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of flexible workflow research, made many research, established implementation based on Petri nets, activity network, meta-model, ECA rules and so on. While ECA rule is a good way to solve dynamic problems for its flexible scalability and it has better ability to describe compared to traditional graphical modeling approach, appropriate to achieve scalable easy to transplant lightweight flexible workflow.This paper uses the ECA rule model, according to the scientific research project management, defines a set of events trigger based on condition action rules, and the user action with ECA rules are bound, they are guiding workflow engine together to the establishment of a flexible workflow model. Through set the ECA rule formalization definition format and storage model, describe the rules in the process of research project management according to the formal definition format including dynamic structures and the basic structures. User actions are classified and defined based on above, then definition user actions bind with the corresponding set of ECA rules.During the execution of flexible workflow, when user action occurs, firstly determine the user operation type, if it is the ordinary type, execute the corresponding operation to complete the corresponding function; if it is the flow type, obtain the binding rules set. Secondly, judge whether the rule set is null, if the rule set is empty, indicate that it is not the process change type operation, then directly trigger the event rules binding in workflow model; if the rule set is not empty, indicate that it is process change type operation, then the workflow engine triggers the corresponding rule event based on the current node structure. After a message is send using message mechanism, find a corresponding rule from rule library and read its content, then get the conditions of the rule, and judge whether meet the conditions according to the current environment. When the conditions are met, the binding actions guide workflow engine work to realize the flexibility of workflow.The paper builds a flexible workflow based on ECA rules, and applies to the management of a significant scientific research institution, and good supports the needs of the institution’s research management.