Decentralised Workflows and Software Agents

This paper argues that the combination of software agents with existing workflow management systems can facilitate the degree of co-ordination and collaboration required to make virtual enterprises a reality. It describes the use of software agents in the setting-up of decentralised workflows, the r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BT technology journal 1999-10, Vol.17 (4), p.65-71
Main Authors: Shepherdson, J W, Thompson, S G, Odgers, B R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to information
Audit trails
Automation
Collaboration
Compensation
Customer services
Departments
Expenditures
Interoperability
Ontology
Organization theory
Semantics
Software packages
Studies
Virtual corporations
Workflow software
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Summary:This paper argues that the combination of software agents with existing workflow management systems can facilitate the degree of co-ordination and collaboration required to make virtual enterprises a reality. It describes the use of software agents in the setting-up of decentralised workflows, the reactive and proactive redistribution of work during process failures, the promotion of interoperability between workflow management systems, and the visualisation and monitoring of decentralised business processes. An implementation is described which uses a number of industry standard components, such as the agent communication language defined by the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, Java(TM) and the Process Interchange Format. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1358-3948
1573-1995
DOI:10.1023/A:1009694925231