Desgin and control of workflow processes

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This monograph aims to enhance scientific understanding of designing and controlling workflow processes, which are specific types of business processes that organize work and resources. Workflows are prevalent in large administrative organizations like banks, insurance companies, and governmental agencies, where tasks must be executed in a specific order to manage cases such as mortgage applications, customer complaints, and unemployment claims. For instance, a workflow for mortgage applications includes tasks like recording the application, proposing a mortgage, and approving the final policy. The focus is on four key workflow-related issues within Business Process Management, which involves designing and controlling business processes. The first issue addressed is the adequate modeling of workflows, an essential activity for reasoning about them. Various purposes for workflow modeling exist, including system enablement through Workflow Management Systems, knowledge management, and budgeting. This monograph emphasizes modeling to support workflow simulation and analysis, as well as to specify new workflow designs. The primary formalism utilized for workflow modeling is the Petri net, incorporating established concepts like the workflow net and soundness to define relevant properties.