The Research on Decision Approach of Data Dependence in Dynamic Workflow System

Aiming at the main defect of typically dynamic workflow systems that is not able to decide automatically the dependences among data in workflows, the Petri-Net is used to model data dependence for the dynamic workflows, the data structure of dynamic workflow denoted by Petri-Net is described in detail. Based on the model and data structure a decision algorithm of data dependence of workflow is proposed, and the complexity of the algorithm is analyzed. The basic idea of the algorithm is to suppose if a workflow can be dealt with normally ( i.e. conform to data dependence ), then there must be a state in the reachable states of DataFlow in which a mark will appear in the postposition place of data transition. Lastly, by a computing example the decision algorithm of dynamic workflow based on Petri-Net is proved to be practical, effective and feasible.