A workflow system through cooperating agents for control and document flow over the internet


Dogac A., Tambag Y., Tumer A., Ezbiderli M., Tatbul N., Hamali N., ...Daha Fazla

COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS, cilt.1901, ss.138-143, 2000 (SCI-Expanded) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 1901
  • Basım Tarihi: 2000
  • Dergi Adı: COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS, PROCEEDINGS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.138-143
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

In this paper we describe in architecture that provides for automating and monitoring the flow of control and document over the Internet among different organizations, thereby creating a platform necessary to describe higher order processes involving several organizations and companies. The higher order process is designed through a graphical user interface and is executed through cooperating agents that are automatically initialized at cacti site that the process executes. Agents handle the activities at their site, provide for coordination with other agents in the system by routing the documents in electronic form according to the process description. Tho, system is capable of activating external applications (which may be inside the company firewall) when necessary, keeping track of process information, and providing for the security and authentication of documents as well as, comprehensive monitoring facilities. The architecture is general enough to be applied to any business practice where data flow and invocation of activities among different industries and cooperations follow a pattern that can be described through a process definition, however since the project is on maritime industry, some of the graphical user interfaces are customized accordingly. The system is fully operational for industrial use.