SysML-based domain-specific executable workflows

This paper presents a tool called SysFlow Workflow Engine (SWE) that is being developed to execute a domain workflow defined using SysML's Activity Diagram. The paper also describes extensions added to the SysML semantics to make them SWE executable. SWE focuses on grid computing, cyberinfrastructure and related domains; however support for other domains can be easily added. SWE aims to provide a common interface to grid, cyberinfrastructure and other domain-specific software by abstracting their complexity and idiosyncrasies. To create a workflow, users can use SysML modelers such as Topcased, which allows them to create and validate SysML models. Before submitting a workflow to SWE for execution, users have to ensure that their workflow is not only a valid SysML model but also a valid SWE executable model. SWE receives a SysML workflow in XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format and after performing certain validation checks it parses and executes the workflow.