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Data Management in a Connected World pp 215–234Cite as

Pros and Cons of Distributed Workflow Execution Algorithms

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 3551))

Abstract

As an implementation of business processes workflows are inherently distributed. Consequently, there is a considerable amount both of commercial products and research prototypes that address distribution issues in workflow execution and workflow management systems (WfMS). However, most of these approaches provide only results focussed on the properties of a specific workflow model, workflow application, and/or WfMS implementation. An analysis of generic requirements on distributed workflow execution algorithms and their applicability, advantages, and disadvantages in different workflow scenarios is still missing but will be shown in this paper. A comprehensive requirements analysis on distributed workflow execution forms the basis of our discussion of distributed workflow execution. In contrast to existing work that primarily focuses on non-functional requirements, this paper explicitly considers issues that originate in the workflow model as well. Subsequently, four basic algorithms for distributed workflow execution are presented, namely remote access, workflow migration, workflow partitioning, and subworkflow distribution. Existing WfMS approaches use combinations and/or variants of these basic algorithms. The properties of these algorithms with respect to the aforementioned requirements are discussed in detail. As a primary result, subworkflow distribution proves to be a well-suited application-independent and thus generally applicable distributed execution model. Nevertheless, application-specific optimizations can be accomplished by other models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consileon Business Consultancy GmbH, Germany

    Hans Schuster

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  1. Hans Schuster
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. AG DBIS, Department of Computer Science, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Theo Härder

  2. Database Technology Group, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

    Wolfgang Lehner

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Schuster, H. (2005). Pros and Cons of Distributed Workflow Execution Algorithms. In: Härder, T., Lehner, W. (eds) Data Management in a Connected World. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3551. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11499923_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11499923_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26295-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31654-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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