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Pattern-based knowledge workflow automation: concepts and issues

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Abstract

As the result of business process automation, more and more knowledge is codified and stored in knowledge repositories and scattered in employees’ computers across functionally and geographically separated business units. While several alternative mechanisms such as chat rooms, search engines, recommender systems exist to retrieve and access knowledge, satisfying a knowledge requirement often involves the coordination of multiple tasks and the use of several technologies. However, there is no existing technology for orchestrating various collaboration, communication and information retrieval components to satisfy the knowledge needs in corporations. In order to address this gap, we propose the approach of pattern-based knowledge workflow that can enable the automation of knowledge flows across an organization. In this paper, we present an overview of the pattern-based knowledge workflow approach and propose extensions to the conventional workflow paradigm. We demonstrate the feasibility of implementing knowledge workflows by means of a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) specification for executing knowledge workflows in a business setting. We then discuss the engineering challenges and research issues that need to be addressed to further develop this approach.

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Notes

  1. Note that knowledge workflow patterns are different from workflow patterns (Van der Aalst et al. 2003). The latter are elementary syntactic patterns found in workflow models, but knowledge workflow patterns have semantic meaning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business and Information Systems, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, USA

    Surendra Sarnikar

  2. Department of MIS, Eller College of Management, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    J. Leon Zhao

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  1. Surendra Sarnikar
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  2. J. Leon Zhao
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Correspondence to Surendra Sarnikar.

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Sarnikar, S., Zhao, J.L. Pattern-based knowledge workflow automation: concepts and issues. Inf Syst E-Bus Manage 6, 385–402 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-007-0072-y

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