Article

UML Activity Diagrams as a Workflow Specification Language

Authors:

Arthur H. M. ter HofstedeAuthors Info & Claims

«UML» '01: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on The Unified Modeling Language, Modeling Languages, Concepts, and Tools

Pages 76 - 90

Published: 01 October 2001 Publication History

Abstract

If UML activity diagrams are to succeed as a standard in the area of organisational process modeling, they need to compare well to alternative languages such as those provided by commercial Workflow Management Systems. This paper examines the expressiveness and the adequacy of activity diagrams for workflow specification, by systematically evaluating their ability to capture a collection of workflow patterns. This analysis provides insights into the relative strengths and weaknesses of activity diagrams. In particular, it is shown that, given an appropriate clarification of their semantics, activity diagrams are able to capture situations arising in practice, which cannot be captured by most commercial Workflow Management Systems. On the other hand, the study shows that activity diagrams fail to capture some useful situations, thereby suggesting directions for improvement.

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cover image Guide Proceedings

«UML» '01: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on The Unified Modeling Language, Modeling Languages, Concepts, and Tools

October 2001

507 pages

ISBN:3540426671

Publisher

Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 01 October 2001

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Cited By

Voit NBochkov S(2021)Formal Method to Analyze Design Workflows in Software DevelopmentComputational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 202110.1007/978-3-030-87013-3_14(182-194)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-87013-3_14
Buck SZell A(2019)CSJournal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems10.1007/s10846-018-0831-794:2(371-387)Online publication date: 1-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10846-018-0831-7
Ponce EStephenson BLenhart SDay JPeterson GSanielevici S(2018)PaPaSProceedings of the Practice and Experience on Advanced Research Computing: Seamless Creativity10.1145/3219104.3229289(1-8)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3219104.3229289
Ivie PThain D(2018)Reproducibility in Scientific ComputingACM Computing Surveys10.1145/318626651:3(1-36)Online publication date: 16-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3186266
Thramboulidis KBochalis PBouloumpasis J(2017)A framework for MDE of IoT-based manufacturing cyber-physical systemsProceedings of the Seventh International Conference on the Internet of Things10.1145/3131542.3131554(1-8)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2017
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Guerrero-García JGonzález-Calleros JGonzález-Monfil APinto DGonzález-Calleros J(2017)A method to align user interface to workflow allocation patternsProceedings of the XVIII International Conference on Human Computer Interaction10.1145/3123818.3123844(1-8)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3123818.3123844
Liu ZFan SWang HZhao J(2017)Enabling effective workflow model reuseDecision Support Systems10.1016/j.dss.2016.09.00293:C(11-25)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.dss.2016.09.002
Salnitri MDalpiaz FGiorgini P(2017)Designing secure business processes with SecBPMNSoftware and Systems Modeling (SoSyM)10.1007/s10270-015-0499-416:3(737-757)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2017
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Marin MLotriet HVan Der Poll Jde Villiers Cvan der Merwe A(2014)Measuring Method Complexity of the Case Management Modeling and Notation (CMMN)Proceedings of the Southern African Institute for Computer Scientist and Information Technologists Annual Conference 2014 on SAICSIT 2014 Empowered by Technology10.1145/2664591.2664608(209-216)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2014
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