1 dsv-is’2008, kingston, ontario, canada, july 16-18, 2008 towards a library of workflow user...
TRANSCRIPT
1 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Towards a Library ofWorkflow User Interface Patterns
Josefina Guerrero García1, Jean Vanderdonckt1,Juan Manuel González Calleros1, Marco Winckler1,2
1Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)Louvain School of Management (LSM) - Information Systems Unit (ISYS)
Belgian Laboratory of Computer-Human Interaction (BCHI)http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi
2IRIT, Université Toulouse 3, France, 118 route de Narbonne,F-31062 Toulouse cedex 9 (France), [email protected] – http://liihs.irit.fr/winckler/
2 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Outline
• Introduction & motivations
• Developing user interfaces for workflow information systems
• Workflow user interface patterns
• Conclusion and related work
3 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Introduction & motivations
• Workflow is defined as the automation of business process.
• A Workflow Information System (WfIS) is a system that defines, creates and manages the execution of workflows through the use of software; the users of a WfIS interact with it through its user interfaces (UIs).
• Workflow patterns refer specifically to recurrent problems and proven solutions related to the development of WfIS in particular, and more broadly, of process-oriented applications.
• Workflow resource patterns have been identified that capture the different manners in which resources are presented and used in workflows.
4 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Introduction & motivations
• The rationale for identifying these patterns was the need to master the many ways according which work can be distributed.
• We explore a systematic manner to develop user interfaces (UIs) for each workflow resource pattern following the same definition and using UsiXML language.
• The goal of this work is not to reproduce the workflow resource patterns, but to associate a default UI to each pattern.
5 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Developing user interfaces for workflow information
systems
Task Task Resource User Stereotype
Material
Immaterial
ProcessWorkflow
1..*
0..1
1..*
1..*
1..*
ContextDomain Platform
Environment
Abstract UI
Concrete UI
Final UI
0..*
0..*
0..*
1..*
0..n
Task & domain
AUI level
CUI level
FUI level
Task Task Resource User Stereotype
Material
Immaterial
ProcessWorkflow
1..*
0..1
1..*
1..*
1..*
ContextDomain Platform
Environment
Abstract UI
Concrete UI
Final UI
0..*
0..*
0..*
1..*
0..n
Task & domain
AUI level
CUI level
FUI level
6 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Developing user interfaces for workflow information
systems
Task & domain level
AUI level
CUI level
FUI level
7 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Workflow user interface patterns
• We adopted the following methodology for defining Workflow User Interface Pattern (WUIP):
– Augmented UI pattern definition– Incorporation in the model-driven engineering method– Final WUIPs
8 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Workflow user interface patterns
Augmented UI pattern definition
Identifier Name Alias Synopsis Strengths Weakness Opportunities ThreadsProblem Solution Example
Incorporation in the model-driven engineering method
Final WUIPs
Definition WUIP
9 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Examples
• Direct allocation: “Ask reviewers preferences” task must only be undertaken by “Joshua Brown”
10 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Example 2
• Hierarchy level-based : “Reduce wage bill” task is allocated to a “Financier” with has a 5 level, i.e. the “Financial Manager”
11 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
12 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Conclusion and related work
• Workflow resource patterns correspond to the manner in which tasks are allocated to resources.
• This paper introduced a library of user interface design patterns that are particularly applicable to user interfaces of workflow information systems.
• For each workflow pattern from Russel & van der Aalst, we have a task model, a AUI model, a CUI model
• Designers are able now to specificity resource allocation patterns using UIs that fits: both at design-time and at run-time, considering constraints imposed by mutually excluded patterns.
13 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Conclusion and related work
• YAWL (Yet Another Workflow Language) provides support for the resource perspective.
• We rely on a proved method to generate User Interfaces, UsiXML, passing from task model and abstract user interface to final user interface.
• We propose a model-driven engineering method that provides designers with methodological guidance on how to systematically derive user interfaces of workflow information systems from a series of models.
• It is intended that our model supports changes inside the organization and automatically update the UIs generated.
14 DSV-IS’2008, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 16-18, 2008
Thank you very much for your attention
For more information and downloading,http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi
http://www.usixml.orgUser Interface eXtensible Markup Language
http://www.similar.ccEuropean network on Multimodal UIs
Special thanks to all members of the team!