Controlling the Level of Business Process Instance Flexibility via Rules of Planning

When an organization decides on the level of flexibility in handling business process instances, it needs to impose this level in operational practice. The way of imposing a given level of flexibility depends on the means employed for controlling business processes. When a Business Process Support (BPS) system is used, the flexibility limits can be incorporated in it. The paper discusses how a given level of flexibility can be imposed by a BPS system built based on the state oriented view on business processes. This is done by combining different kinds of rules of planning: obligations, prohibitions, recommendations, and negative recommendations. Changing the status of a rule from obligation to recommendation, or from prohibition to negative recommendation gives more flexibility, and vice versa. The discussion is illustrated with the help of a simplified example already implemented in a BPS system called Probis.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CAISE
• Authors: Ilia Bider, Alexey Striy
• Keywords: Business Process, Business Processes, CAISE 2006, Flexibility Limits, Information Management