Model-Driven Engineering of Workflow User Interfaces

1 CADUI’2008 – Albacete, Spain. June, 11-13th, 2008.

Model-driven Engineering of Workflow User Interfaces

Josefina Guerrero, Christophe Lemaigre, Jean Vanderdonckt, Juan Manuel González

Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)Louvain School of Management (LSM)

Information Systems Unit (ISYS)Place des Doyens, 1 – B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)

http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/


Outline

1. Introduction2. Conceptual model of a workflow

information system3. A method to design workflow user

interfaces 4. Case study and tool support 5. Discussion and related work


Introduction

• Workflow has emerged as an advantage to plan, control, and organize business process.

• Workflow should be highly adaptable and flexible to the frequent changes, including changes on user interfaces.


Introduction

• Some issues encountered while deriving user interfaces from a workflow specification are:– User interface hand code design– Lack of integration models of the organization and user

interface generation– Lack of adaptation to organizational changes

• A model-driven engineering method is presented to systematically derive user interfaces of a workflow information system from a series of models.


Conceptual model of a workflow information system

• FlowiXML is a methodology for developing the various user interfaces of a workflow information system, which are advocated to automate process, following a model-driven engineering based on requirements and processes of the organization.


A method to design workflow user interfaces

taskModeltaskModel

Task & domain

AUI level

CUI level

FUI level

uiModeluiModel

transformationModeltransformationModel

domainModeldomainModel

auiModelauiModel

mappingModelmappingModel

contextModelcontextModel

cuiModelcuiModel

Context of use

•Simplified view decomposed according the Cameleon Reference

Framework and UsiXML


A method to design workflow user interfaces

taskModelProcessWorkflow

Task & domain

AUI level

CUI level

FUI level

uiModel

transformationModel

domainModel

auiModel

mappingModel

contextModel

cuiModel

Context of use

taskModelProcessWorkflow

Task & domain

AUI level

CUI level

FUI level

uiModel

transformationModel

domainModel

auiModel

mappingModel

contextModel

cuiModel

Context of use



uiModel

creationDate : stringschemaVersion : string

workflow

id : Stringname : String

1..n

11

1..nprocess

id : Stringname : Stringfrequency : Integerimportance : Integercategory : Integer

1..n

2..n

1..n

2..n

task

id : stringname : stringcategory : stringfrequency : integerimportance : integerstructurationLevel : integercomplexityLevel : integercriticity : integercentrality : integerterminationValue : stringtaskType : stringtaskItem : stringpostCondition : stringpreCondition : string



process

id : Stringname : Stringfrequency : Integerimportance : Integercategory : Integer

1..n1..n

11

processModel

0..n

11

0..n

processOperator

id : Stringname : String

1

1..n

1 1..n1..n1

1..n

1

targetProcess

targetProcessId : String

sourceProcess

sourceProcessId : String

11

0..n0..nworkItem

idWorkflow : stringidProcess : stringidTask : stringidTaskResource : stringidOrganizationalUnit : stringstatus : stringdateBegan : datedateDue : datedateAllocation : datedateDelegation : datedateFinished : date

0..n 10..n 1

workList

id : stringname : string

sequential synchronization parallelSplit exclusiveChoice simpleMerge multiChoice


Work list



task

id : stringname : stringcategory : stringfrequency : integerimportance : integerstructurationLevel : integercomplexityLevel : integercriticity : integercentrality : integerterminationValue : stringtaskType : stringtaskItem : stringpostCondition : stringpreCondition : string

1..n

1..n

1..n

1..n

job

id : Stringname : StringjobSpecifications : StringjobFamily : StringjobGrade : StringjobPrivileges : String

1..n

1..n

1..n

1..n

organizationalUnit

id : Stringname : StringorganizationObjectives : StringgroupType : StringphisicalLocation : StringhierarchyLevel : Stringrelationship : StringorganizationRules : String

0..n

0..n0..n

0..n

1..n

1..n

1..n

1..n

logEntry

id : Stringname : StringtimeStamp : Datedescription : StringlogType : String

0..n

0..n0..n

0..n

taskResource

id : Stringname : Stringcapability : Stringfeatures : Stringcost : Stringtaskload : Stringavailability : String

1..n

1..n

1..n

1..n

1

0..n

1

0..nagendaItem

idWorkflow : stringidProcess : stringidTask : stringidUserStereotype : stringidOrganizationalUnit : stringstatus : stringdateBegan : datedateDue : datedateDelegation : datedateFinished : datereminder : datecompleted : integerdelegation : stringdateAllocation : date

0..n

1

0..n

1agenda

id : stringname : string

11

11

meansMaterials immaterial

0..n

0..1

0..n

0..1

userStereotype

id : stringstereotypeName : stringtaskExperience : stringsystemExperience : stringdeviceExperience : stringtaskMotivation : string


Agenda


Task allocation


Case study and tool support


Discussion and related work

• Workflow research includes – Graphical notations: Petri net, Statecharts, BPMN– Description languages: Yet Another Workflow Language (YAWL) ,

Exchangeable Routing Language (XRL) – Tools: The Progression Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation

(WWF), Flexo Business, Business Process Visual ARCHITEC (BP-VA), WebSphere® MQ Workflow [IBM], i-Flow™, and others

– Workflow patterns

• We proposed a model-driven engineering approach for designing user interfaces for a workflow information system, which is decomposed into processes to end up with tasks.



• The characteristics of the model are:– It is expressed in XML-based specification language– Relied on Cameleon Reference Framework– It preserves continuity (all subsequent models are derived from

previous ones) and traceability of its enactment (it is possible to trace how a particular workflow is decomposed into processes and tasks, with their corresponding user interfaces).

• In order to partially support this method, a software tool has been developed in Java 1.5 that supports the graphical editing of the concepts introduced in an integrated way.

• This method has been validated on 4 real-world case studies (a hospital dept., a triathlon organization, a cycling event, and personalized order of compression stockings over Internet).



• As future work, we will consider criteria for support group interactions:– Support carrying out group tasks– Support multiple ways to support a group task – Support the group evolution over time

• Usability guidelines to design user interfaces

• Synchronization of user interfaces


Thank you very much for your attention

For more information and downloading,http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi

http://www.usixml.orgUser Interface eXtensible Markup Language

http://www.similar.ccEuropean network on Multimodal UIs

Special thanks to all members of the team!

http://www.conacyt.mxConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología

http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi

http://www.usixml.org/

http://www.similar.cc/

http://www.conacyt.mx/

Model-Driven Engineering of Workflow User Interfaces

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