A concept of time in workflow modelling and analysis

Time management in workflow processes is crucial in determining and controlling the life cycle of business activities. By assigning deterministic execution durations to individual tasks, workflows have been analysed for the correctness and efficiency of business processes. In our model, we assign a temporal interval to every workflow task. While the real time taken by the task is non-deterministic or unpredictable, it may be between the bounds, thus specified. An interval timed extension of Workflow nets (WF-nets) is then used to specify the workflow with such time constraints. Using our previous results on timed Petri net modelling and analysis, we show that certain behavioural properties of the workflow process can be verified.