5,246 research outputs found
Object-oriented protocol hierarchies for distributed workflow systems
Distributed software systems such as groupware and workflow systems
will play a key role in the near future. While numerous models which
promise highly sophisticated functionality are proposed in the
literature their implementation is still a difficult and very
expensive task. Therefore existing systems fall far behind their
promises.
Entities of the workflow level are often autonomous. Consequently,
they are related to each other in more than a fixed client/server
configuration: they often perform their activities in collaboration.
Workflow models also contain a lot of information about the system\u27s
dynamics. If one uses objects as an implementation mode
Pattern Reification as the Basis for Description-Driven Systems
One of the main factors driving object-oriented software development for
information systems is the requirement for systems to be tolerant to change. To
address this issue in designing systems, this paper proposes a pattern-based,
object-oriented, description-driven system (DDS) architecture as an extension
to the standard UML four-layer meta-model. A DDS architecture is proposed in
which aspects of both static and dynamic systems behavior can be captured via
descriptive models and meta-models. The proposed architecture embodies four
main elements - firstly, the adoption of a multi-layered meta-modeling
architecture and reflective meta-level architecture, secondly the
identification of four data modeling relationships that can be made explicit
such that they can be modified dynamically, thirdly the identification of five
design patterns which have emerged from practice and have proved essential in
providing reusable building blocks for data management, and fourthly the
encoding of the structural properties of the five design patterns by means of
one fundamental pattern, the Graph pattern. A practical example of this
philosophy, the CRISTAL project, is used to demonstrate the use of
description-driven data objects to handle system evolution.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure
Forum Session at the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC03)
The First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC) was held in Trento, December 15-18, 2003. The focus of the conference ---Service Oriented Computing (SOC)--- is the new emerging paradigm for distributed computing and e-business processing that has evolved from object-oriented and component computing to enable building agile networks of collaborating business applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Of the 181 papers submitted to the ICSOC conference, 10 were selected for the forum session which took place on December the 16th, 2003. The papers were chosen based on their technical quality, originality, relevance to SOC and for their nature of being best suited for a poster presentation or a demonstration. This technical report contains the 10 papers presented during the forum session at the ICSOC conference. In particular, the last two papers in the report ere submitted as industrial papers
Pathways: Augmenting interoperability across scholarly repositories
In the emerging eScience environment, repositories of papers, datasets,
software, etc., should be the foundation of a global and natively-digital
scholarly communications system. The current infrastructure falls far short of
this goal. Cross-repository interoperability must be augmented to support the
many workflows and value-chains involved in scholarly communication. This will
not be achieved through the promotion of single repository architecture or
content representation, but instead requires an interoperability framework to
connect the many heterogeneous systems that will exist.
We present a simple data model and service architecture that augments
repository interoperability to enable scholarly value-chains to be implemented.
We describe an experiment that demonstrates how the proposed infrastructure can
be deployed to implement the workflow involved in the creation of an overlay
journal over several different repository systems (Fedora, aDORe, DSpace and
arXiv).Comment: 18 pages. Accepted for International Journal on Digital Libraries
special issue on Digital Libraries and eScienc
Compliance flow: an intelligent workflow management system to support engineering processes
This work is about extending the scope of current workflow management systems to support
engineering processes. On the one hand engineering processes are relatively dynamic, and on the
other their specification and performance are constrained by industry standards and guidelines
for the sake of product acceptability, such as IEC 61508 for safety and ISO 9001 for quality.
A number of technologies have been proposed to increase the adaptability of current workflow
systems to deal with dynamic situations. A primary concern is how to support open-ended
processes that cannot be completely specified in detail prior to their execution. A survey of
adaptive workflow systems is given and the enabling technologies are discussed.
Engineering processes are studied and their characteristics are identified and discussed. Current
workflow systems have been successfully used in managing "administrative" processes for some
time, but they lack the flexibility to support dynamic, unpredictable, collaborative, and highly
interdependent engineering processes. [Continues.
Analysis and design of multiagent systems using MAS-CommonKADS
This article proposes an agent-oriented methodology called MAS-CommonKADS and develops a case study. This methodology extends the knowledge engineering methodology CommonKADSwith techniquesfrom objectoriented and protocol engineering methodologies. The methodology consists of the development of seven models: Agent Model, that describes the characteristics of each agent; Task Model, that describes the tasks that the agents carry out; Expertise Model, that describes the knowledge needed by the agents to achieve their goals; Organisation Model, that describes the structural relationships between agents (software agents and/or human agents); Coordination Model, that describes the dynamic relationships between software agents; Communication Model, that describes the dynamic relationships between human agents and their respective personal assistant software agents; and Design Model, that refines the previous models and determines the most suitable agent architecture for each agent, and the requirements of the agent network
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