Abstract
Static analysis techniques for consistency checking of workflows allow to avoid runtime errors. This is in particular crucial for long running workflows where errors, detected late, can cause high costs. In many classes of workflows, the data perspective is rather simple, and the control flow perspective is the focus of consistency checking. In our setting, however, workflows are used to collect and integrate complex data based on a given domain ontology. In such scenarios, the data perspective becomes central and data consistency checking crucial.
In this paper, we motivate and sketch a simple workflow language with an ontology-based data perspective (SWOD), explain its semantics, classify possible inconsistencies, and present an algorithm for detecting such inconsistencies utilizing semantic web reasoning. We discuss soundness and completeness of the technique.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Verbeek, H., van der Aalst, W., ter Hofstede, A.: Verifying Workflows with Cancellation Regions and OR-joins: An Approach Based on Relaxed Soundness and Invariants. Computer Journal 50(3), 294–314 (2007)
Qian, Y., Xu, Y., Wang, Z., Pu, G., Zhu, H., Cai, C.: Tool Support for BPEL Verification in ActiveBPEL Engine. In: Proceedings of the 2007 Australian Software Engineering Conference, pp. 90–100 (2007)
Sun, X., Zhao, J., et al.: Formulating the Data-Flow Perspective for Business Process Management. Information Systems Research 17(4), 374–391 (2006)
Eshuis, R.: Semantics and Verification of UML Activity Diagrams for Workow Modelling. PhD thesis, University of Twente (2002), http://www.ctit.utwente.nl/library/phd/eshuis.pdf
W3C OWL Working Group: OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. W3C Working Draft (2009), http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/
Weiler, G.: Consistency Checking for Workflows with an Ontology-Based Data Perspective (unpublished) (2009), http://softech.informatik.uni-kl.de/twiki/bin/view/Homepage/PublikationsDetail?id=133
Weiler, G., Brochhausen, M., Graf, N., Schera, F., Hoppe, A., Kiefer, S.: Ontology Based Data Management Systems for Post-Genomic Clinical Trials within a European Grid Infrastructure for Cancer Research. In: Proc. of the 29 Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS, August 2007, pp. 6434–6437 (2007)
Tsiknakis, M., Brochhausen, M., et al.: A Semantic Grid Infrastructure Enabling Integrated Access and Analysis of Multilevel Biomedical Data in Support of Postgenomic Clinical Trials on Cancer. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine 12(2), 205–217 (2008)
Brochhausen, M., Weiler, G., et al.: The ACGT Master Ontology on Cancer - A new Terminology Source for Oncological Practice. In: Proc. of 21st IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, pp. 324–329 (2008)
Russel, N., ter Hofstede, A., van der Aalst, W., Mulyar, N.: Workflow Control-Flow Patterns: A Revised View. Technical report, BPMcenter.org (2006)
Baader, F., Calvanese, D., et al. (eds.): The Description Logic Handbook, Theory Implementation and Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)
Horrocks, I., Patel-Schneider, P.F., Boley, H., Tabet, S., Grosof, B., Dean, M.: SWRL: A Semantic Web Rule Language. W3C Member Submission (2004)
Horridge, M., Bechhofer, S., Noppens, O.: Igniting the OWL 1.1 Touch Paper: The OWL API. In: OWLED 2007, 3rd OWL Experiences and Directions Workshop, Innsbruck, Austria (June 2007)
Sirin, B., Parsia, B., Grau, B., Kalyanpur, A., Katz, Y.: Pellet: A practical OWL-DL reasoner. Journal of Web Semantics 5(2) (2007)
Sundari, M., Sen, A., Bagchi, A.: Detecting Data flow Errors in Workflows: A Systematic Graph Traversal approach. In: Proc. 17th Workshop on Information Technology & Systems (2007)
Farrell, J., Lausen, H.: Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema. W3C Recommendation (2008)
Martin, D., Burstein, M., et al.: OWL-S: Semantic Markup for Web Services. W3C Member Submission (2004)
Rubin, D., Knublauch, H., et al.: Protege-owl: Creating ontology-driven reasoning applications with the web ontology language. In: AMIA Annu. Symp. Proc. (2005)
Whitley, S., Reeves, D.: Formbuilder: A tool for promoting data sharing and reuse within the cancer community. Oncological Nursing Forum 34 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Weiler, G., Poetzsch-Heffter, A., Kiefer, S. (2009). Consistency Checking for Workflows with an Ontology-Based Data Perspective. In: Bhowmick, S.S., Küng, J., Wagner, R. (eds) Database and Expert Systems Applications. DEXA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5690. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03573-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03573-9_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03572-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03573-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)