published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Parameter selection is a critical task in scientific workflows in order to maintain the accuracy of the simulation in an environment where physical conditions change dynamically such as in the case of weather research and forecast simulations. Currently, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is the premier method for weather prediction, which is used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It takes the current observations from observed sites as the input for numeric computer models and then produces the final prediction. Considering the large number of simulation parameters, the size of the configuration search space becomes prohibitive for rapidly evaluating and identifying the parameter configuration that leads to most accurate prediction. In this thesis, we develop an Autonomic Workflow Performance Manager (AWPM) for Hurricane Integrated Modeling System (HIMS). AWPM is implemented on top of the Apache Storm and ZooKeeper to handle multiple real-time data streams for weather forecast. AWPM can automatically manage model initialization and execution workflow and achieve better performance and efficiency. In our experiments, AWPM achieves better performance and efficiency for the model initialization and execution processes, by utilizing automatic computing, distributed computing and component-based development. We reduced the timescale of the configuration search workflow by a factor of 10 by using 20 threads with the full search method, and a factor of 20 by with the roofline method when compared to serial workflow execution as it is typically performed by domain scientists.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Engineering, 2017 / Manufacturing companies have challenges implementing business process improvements and innovations (BPI) on support service processes effectively and find it difficult to measure the impact of such interventions on the overall performance of the organisation. Measurement of the impact of BPIs on overall performance of manufacturing companies is problematic due to the inadequacy of BPI metrics for support services. Furthermore, there are no universally accepted frameworks available for the measurement of the impact of improvements on support service processes on the performance of manufacturing companies. While there are frameworks available for performance measurement in general, they are not specific to measurement of the impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes. An initial exploratory study, based on an online survey of 50 companies that would typically conduct BPI or where known to the researcher to have conducted BPIs recently, was conducted to explore the nature of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes in South Africa. A second longer online survey was then conducted with 1000 respondents in manufacturing companies selected through expert sampling to further explore the nature and impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes considering selection of support service processes, the types and number of support service processes as well as BPI traditions and methodologies in use within manufacturing companies. In addition, four companies were selected for in-depth case studies in which ten projects were analysed by applying within case and cross case analysis The results of the surveys, the case studies and a revisit to the case companies were used to refine successive iterations of a theoretical framework initially developed from the literature. The framework provides a set of guidelines and actions for manufacturing companies to effectively conduct BPIs on manufacturing support service processes a basis from which the impact of improvements in manufacturing support service processes on manufacturing companies can be measured by providing the measurement areas to consider and a set of high level measures to use as high level indicators. Finally, the framework was checked for completeness using recommended criteria derived from the literature and was found to be complete and suitable as it met all the criteria for good measurement systems defined in the literature sources used in this study. / MT 2017

A new workflow model, namely multi-agent workflow model (MAWM), is proposed. The cultural dependent issues in Chinese business process modeling are considered and catered for in MAWM. Moreover, MAWM offers high flexibility in workflow modeling. / Further, the structural correctness of a process in MAWM is verified. A set of structural correctness criteria are defined and based on them a series of verification algorithms are designed. Also, we show that the verification algorithm for a single process is linear in complexity. As such, it is more efficient than contemporary algorithms, which are polynomial. / In this thesis, we have provided a starting point for organizational issues, especially cultural issues support in workflow modeling. Our research focuses on the context of Chinese business processes. Based on our study of Chinese business culture, we identified a set of desirable properties for workflows in Chinese business process modeling. / Our research has shown that there are one must cater for the cultural requirements for effective Chinese business process modeling. This aspect, however, has been undermined. MAMW is our attempt to break through this "cultural vs. technology" iceberg. / Ren Yongjie. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 62-09, Section: B, page: 4086. / Supervisers: Kam-Fai Wong; Boon-Toh Low. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-132). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

Workflow management promises a solution to an age-old problem: controlling,monitoring, optimizing and supporting business processes. What is new about workflow management is the explicit representation of the business process logic which allows for computerized support. In the light of this support, many researchers developed different approaches to model new systems with different capabilities to solve this age-old problem. One of the approaches is using logicbased methodology for the specification and execution of workflows. Here, the event calculus, a logic programming formalism for representing events and their effects especially in database applications, is used for this approach. It is shown that the control flow graph of a workflow specification can be expressed as a set of logical formulas and the event calculus can be used to specify the role of a workflow manager through a set of rules for the execution dependencies of activities. Constructed workflow formalization through Event Calculus is realized by using recent technologies, and the resulting product is named as EventFlow,including some administrative interfaces to manage system and workflow engine. The thesis describes the architecture and implementation details of EventFlow, an editor developed for graphical representation of control flow graph, and technologies used in the implementation. And an example application is built to show the usability and execution of the implemented system.

Business process reengineering (BPR) has been considered as one of the key approaches to increasing the competitive edge of many modern enterprises. Many big enterprises have taken diversified degree of reengineering to their business processes. The importance of understanding the existing business processes and evaluating the new business processes before they are actually deployed is commonly recognized. Without careful examination of the existing and new business processes, the change in business process. In this research, we look into the business process analysis issues under the scope of BPR. We first examine various models for business processes. As each model is invented with a purpose, e.g., for identifying the critical path in a factory manufacturing environment, for automating workflow in an office environment, etc., they may not be completely suitable for business process analysis. We try to identify the requirements of business process analysis and propose a model to meet these requirements. We finally design and implement a business process analyzer. This business process analyzer use our proposed business process model and is able to answer the queries from the BPR team expressed by our proposed query language.

Thesis (M.Sc.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Restricted until June 2001. Bibliography: leaves [93]-98.

Today, organizations often need to modify their business processes to cope with changes in the environment, such as mergers/acquisitions, new government regulations, and new customer demand. Most organizations also have a set of business policies defining the way they conduct their business. Although there has been extensive research on process analysis and design, how to systematically extract workflow models from business policies has not been studied, resulting in a missing link between the specification of business policies and the modeling of business processes.Given that process changes are often determined by executives and managers at the policy level, the aforementioned missing link often leads to inefficient and inaccurate implementation of process changes by business analysts and process designers. We refer to this problem as the policy mismatch problem in business process management. For organizations with large-scale business processes and a large number of business policies, solving the policy mismatch problem is very difficult and challenging.In this dissertation, we attempt to provide a formal link between business policies and workflow models by proposing a logic-based methodology for process analysis and design. In particular, we first propose a Policy-driven Process Design (PPD) methodology to formalize the procedure of extracting workflow models from business policies. In PPD, narrative process policies are parsed into precise information on various workflow components, and a set of process design rules and algorithms are applied to generate workflow models from that information.We also develop a logic-based process modeling language named Unified Predicate Language (UPL). UPL is able to represent all workflow components in a single logic format and provides analytical capability via logic inference and query. We demonstrate UPL's expressive power and analytical ability by applying it to process design and process change analysis. In particular, we use UPL to define and classify process change anomalies and develop algorithms to verify and enforce process consistency.The Policy-driven Process Design, Unified Predicate Language, and process change analysis approach found in this dissertation contribute to business process management research by providing a formal methodology for resolving the policy mismatch problem.

Contemporary workflow management systems are driven by explicit process models, i.e., a completely specified workflow design is required in order to enact a given workflow process. Creating a workflow design is a complicated time-consuming process and typically there are discrepancies between the actual workflow processes and the processes as perceived by the management. Therefore, new techniques for discovering workflow models have been required. Starting point for such techniques are so-called &ldquo / workflow logs&quot / containing information about the workflow process as it is actually being executed. In this thesis, new mining technique based on time information is proposed. It is assumed that events in workflow logs bear timestamps. This information is used in to determine task orders and control flows between tasks. With this new algorithm, basic workflow structures, sequential, parallel, alternative and iterative (i.e., loops) routing, and advance workflow structure or-join can be mined. While mining the workflow structures, this algorithm also handles the noise problem.