Multi-Attribute Auction Mechanism for Supporting Resource Allocation in Business Process Enactment

Resources are taking into account when designing business processes, but, under certain circumstances, they should be scheduled when business processes are enacted. Nowadays, the decentralization of the activities and outsourcing of certain tasks to third party companies is increasing the complexity of the resource allocation for business process. Moreover, some activities cannot be scheduled in advance, because they depend on some decision points in the business process, forcing the allocation of resources to tasks on the go. To deal with these issues we present a multi-attribute auction mechanism. Auctions are a market mechanism that facilitate the resource allocation in open, distributed scenarios. The auction model we are presenting is multi-attribute, so in addition to deal with the economic costs of the allocations, it enables the inclusion of other attributes, such as finishing on time or the quality of the outcomes. We have tested our proposal in a simulated framework and the results show about the benefits of using different attributes, in addition of providing privacy relationships among business process and resource providers.