The relationship between workflow graphs and free-choice workflow nets

被引:23
|
作者
Favre, Cedric [1 ]
Fahland, Dirk [2 ]
Voelzer, Hagen [1 ]
机构
[1] IBM Res, Zurich, Switzerland
[2] Eindhoven Univ Technol, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
关键词
Workflow graphs; Petri nets; Free choice; Inclusive Or-join; BUSINESS PROCESS MODELS; CONTROL-FLOW; PETRI NETS; SEMANTICS; VERIFICATION;
D O I
10.1016/j.is.2013.12.004
中图分类号
TP [自动化技术、计算机技术];
学科分类号
0812 ;
摘要
Workflow graphs represent the main control-flow constructs of industrial process modeling languages such as BPMN, EPC and UML activity diagrams, whereas free-choice workflow nets are a well understood class of Petri nets that possesses many efficient analysis techniques. In this paper, we provide new results on the translation between workflow graphs and free-choice workflow nets. We distinguish workflow graphs with and without inclusive Or-logic. For workflow graphs without inclusive logic, we show that workflow graphs and free-choice workflow nets are essentially the same thing. More precisely, each workflow graph and each free-choice workflow net can be brought into an equivalent normal form such that the normal forms are, in some sense, isomorphic. This result gives rise to a translation from arbitrary free-choice workflow nets to workflow graphs. For workflow graphs with inclusive logic, we provide various techniques to replace inclusive Or-joins by subgraphs without inclusive logic, thus giving rise to translations from workflow graphs to free-choice nets. Additionally, we characterize the applicability of these replacements. Finally, we also display a simple workflow graph with an inclusive Or-join, which, in some sense, cannot be replaced. This shows a limitation of translating inclusive logic into free-choice nets and illustrates also a difficulty of translating inclusive logic into general Petri nets. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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页码:197 / 219
页数:23
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