AMIRA A State of the Art Analysis of

Abstract. In recent years the requirements for business information systems have changed. Knowledge- and process-management demand for flexible, dynamic and distributed software environments including the ability to work across the organization’s boundaries. With traditional software not up to these challenges new concepts have been developed. This paper reviews the state of the art in workflow modelling, agent technology and agent-based workflow systems. It also pays tribute to the requirements of collaboration and proactivity. 1

Towards Real-Scale Business Transaction Workflow Modelling

While the specification languages of workflow management systems focus on process execution semantics, the successful development of workflows relies on a fuller conceptualisation of business processing including the treatment of time, document transfer, and workflow use and reuse. For this, a wellspring of modelling techniques, paradigms and informal-formal method extensions which address broader enterprise modelling and communication (based on speech-act theory), is available. However, the characterisations - indeed the cognition - of workflows still appears coarse. In this paper, we provide the complementary, empirical insight of a real-scale business transaction workflow. The development of the workflow model follows a set of principles which we believe address workflow modelling suitability. Through the principles, advanced considerations including temporal constraints, message construction and deconstruction together with asynchronous and synchronous modes of messaging, service e..