Our contributions to De.Te.Berkom's joint project

[Deutsche Fassung]

Project leader:

Prof. Dr. Klaus Meyer-Wegener

Project team members:

Dipl.-Inf. Ulrich Marder
Dipl.-Inf. Günter Robbert

Goals (TUD):

• Clarification of the database's role within a General Workflow Architecture (AVA)
• Development of a comprehensive conceptual schema for a Workflow Database as a representation of the General Workflow Model (AVM)
• Design and implementation of a Reference Database for workflow type descriptions (purpose of the workflow, author, date of definition, available in system x on computer y etc.)
• Design and implementation of a Workflow State Database for managing workflow states (description, system, initiator, starting time, opt. parameters, termination time etc.)
• Provision of a Multimedia Storage System as a teleservice for workflow management systems (WfMS). Using this teleservice, WfMS can create and manage so-called multimedia annotations which can be attached to, e.g., workflow type descriptions or single workflow instances.

Milestones:

1. Coarse specification (June 1994)
2. Fine specification (January 30^th1995)
   Contributions of the TUD:
   • First specific statements concerning the role of the database.
   • Design of a scenario for the Demonstrators (Information Network Bonn-Berlin).
3. General VORTEL Workflow Model and General VORTEL Workflow Architecture Part 1 (April 28^th 1995)
   Contributions of the TUD:
   • Description of the roles of Reference Database, Workflow State Database, Workflow Type Database and Annotation Database.
   • Description of the functionality of the Reference Database.
   • Description of the ER diagrams for Reference Database, Workflow State Database and Workflow Type Database.
   • Development of a relational database schema for the Reference Database.
4. Demonstrator 1 (July 7^th 1995)
   Contributions of the TUD:
   • Development of the Reference Database on Sybase SQL-Server version 10 on Sun/Solaris
   • Development of a browser for the Reference Database on PC/Windows.
5. General VORTEL Workflow Model and General VORTEL Workflow Architecture Part 2 (December 5^th 1995)
   Contributions of the TUD:
   • Development of an entire database schema and description of the relationships between Reference Database, Workflow State Database, Workflow Type Database, Annotation Database and Organization Database.
   • Further development of ER-diagrams for the databases.
   • Description of a method for referencing external Organization Databases. This method requires a specific service called Organization Data Manager which is described, too.
   • Description of the functionality (interfaces) of all mentioned databases.
   • Considerations about concepts for physical distribution of the databases, especially concerning the Annotation Database.
   • Considerations about using transaction processing mechanisms and active databases.
6. Demonstrator 2 (April 30^th 1996)
   Contributions of the TUD:
   • Further development of the Reference Database (using it as the global repository of VORTEL's Application Integration Service, adding a CORBA interface).
   • Deployment of DOPAS as Workflow State Database.
   • Development of a distributed Multimedia Database System as Annotation Database (jointly with GMD/IPSI). Features: Data types IMAGE and AUDIO, remote access via CORBA interface, deployment of the systems MOSS and AMOS as MMDBMS, Windows NT Client (called ANDB-Manager).
   • Development of an integrated user interface ("browser") for Reference Database and Annotation Database (for browsing and modifying the data) on Windows NT.
   • Contributions to the final report.

Created on 06.06.1994 by Ulrich Marder.

Last modified on 21.08.2003 by Maciej Suchomski.