Re: [xml-dev] XML design for workflow management?

[Kurt Cagle <kurt.cagle@gmail.com>]

Roger,

I've been playing with RESTful services and collections, which has actually given me a different perspective on the problem of workflow.

Assume for the moment that you have one or more real collections of documents, possibly (probably) with some form of wrappers that include tokenized workflow properties as elements (call if status for now).

Create virtual collections (say by creating RESTful interfaces backed by XQueries or XProc pipelines) that then segment out elements by workflow status. Include as the presentations on these interfaces some form of syndication feed. Give the appropriate people access to the feed appropriate to their state in the workflow, ordered by most recent, then set up a status board "reader" that displays these feeds. They can see, edit or sign off on a given document if they have the right permissions, and once they do, the workflow status switches to something which moves the virtual records into the feed. This keeps you from sending the document anywhere and creating multiple (possibly conflicting) copies.

Taking a RESTful approach doesn't solve all problems, and you do end up having to build an infrastructure on the back end to better support virtual collections, but I find that it does seem to be a better alternative than developing a complex formal workflow. 


Kurt Cagle
Managing Editor
http://xmlToday.org

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Costello, Roger L. <costello@mitre.org> wrote:

Hi Folks,

Consider an insurance claim for an auto accident. It contains information about a claim, including:

  - date of the accident
  - damage to the car
  - police report

The claim is routed - as defined by some workflow process - to appropriate people and applications for processing. Which people and applications receive the claim depend on certain values of the claim.

For example, if the estimated amount to be paid on the claim is less than a certain amount, a settlement offer is made to the client. If the estimated amount is greater, then an assessor is assigned to investigate the claim, and which office is assigned depends on the location of the client. Thus, these are two of the values used to manage the claim:

   - "estimated claim value" is used to determine
     whether the claim should be routed to the "offer
     settlement" task or the "send assessor" task

   - "client location" is used to determine what
     resources (i.e. which field office) should be
     used by the "send assessor" task

"estimated claim value" and "client location" are values used for workflow management. A workflow management system can use these values to route the claim and assign resources to tasks.

How do you deal with workflow management data vice content data? More generally, how do you design XML documents that enable workflow management?

I can think of two approaches:

1. Header/Payload Approach (i.e. the SOAP approach)

Store the workflow management values in a header section and the content in the body section. This approach requires the workflow management system to have the smarts to fetch the workflow data from the header section. The tasks must have the smarts to fetch the contents from the body section. For example:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <soap:Header>
       <workflow-data xmlns="http://www.auto-insurance.com">
           <estimated-claim-value>$200</estimated-claim-value>
           <client-location>Denver, Colorado</client-location>
       </workflow-data>
   </soap:Header>
   <soap:Body>
       <claim  xmlns="http://www.auto-insurance.com">
           <ID>49303203-AAD</ID>
           <type>auto</type>
           <date-of-accident>April 9, 2009</date-of-accident>
           <date-of-filing>April 11, 2009</date-of-filing>
           <description>
             Car failed to stop at stop sign and broadsided
             the car.
           </description>
           ...
       </claim>
   </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

2. Separate Workflow and Content Documents

The workflow data is placed in one document and the content data is placed in a separate document. The two documents are connected via links. The workflow management system deals just with the workflow document. The tasks deal just with the content document. For example:

-----------------------------------------------
Workflow Document (workflow-49303203-AAD.xml)
-----------------------------------------------

   <Workflow-Data href=""claim-49303203-AAD.xml">        <estimated-claim-value>$200</estimated-claim-value>
       <client-location>Denver, CO</client-location>
   </Workflow-Data>

-----------------------------------------------
Claim Document (claim-49303203-AAD.xml)
-----------------------------------------------

   <claim xmlns="http://www.auto-insurance.com"
          href=""workflow-49303203-AAD.xml">        <ID>49303203-AAD</ID>
       <type>auto</type>
       <date-of-accident>April 9, 2009</date-of-accident>
       <date-of-filing>April 11, 2009</date-of-filing>
       <description>
         Car failed to stop at stop sign and broadsided
         the car.
       </description>
       ...
   </claim>


QUESTIONS

1. Are there other approaches than the two listed above?

2. What approach do you recommend?

/Roger





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