A multiagent system manages collaboration in emergent processes

Emergent processes are non-routine, collaborative business processes whose execution is guided by the knowledge that emerges during a process instance. In so far as the process goal gives direction to conventional business processes, the continually evolving process knowledge gives direction to emergent processes. Emergent processes may involve informal interaction, and so there is a limit to the extent to which the processes can be “managed”. The collaboration however can be managed. Managing collaboration needs an intelligent agent that is guided not by a process goal, but by observing the performance of the other agents. Each agent has process knowledge — that is information either generated by the individual users or is extracted from the environment, and performance knowledge — that describes how the other agents, together with their ‘owners’, perform — including how reliable they are. The integrity of the information derived from past observations decays in time, a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: John K. Debenham
• Keywords: ATAL 2005, Business Processes, Emergent Processes, Process Knowledge