Welcome to the Workflow Patterns home page

The Workflow Patterns initiative is a joint effort of Eindhoven University of Technology (led by Professor Wil van der Aalst, now at RWTH Aachen) and Queensland University of Technology (led by Professor Arthur ter Hofstede) which started in 1999. The aim of this initiative is to provide a conceptual basis for process technology. In particular, the research provides a thorough examination of the various perspectives (control flow, data, resource, and exception handling) that need to be supported by a workflow language or a business process modelling language. The results can be used for examining the suitability of a particular process language or workflow system for a particular project, assessing relative strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to process specification, implementing certain business requirements in a particular process-aware information system, and as a basis for language and tool development.

On this web site you will find detailed descriptions of patterns for the various perspectives relevant for process-aware information systems: control-flow, data, resource, exception handling and event log imperfections. In addition you will find detailed evaluations of various process languages, (proposed) standards for web service compositions, and workflow systems in terms of this patterns.

We encourage interactions with interested parties about this research and its applications. For example, vendors can provide self-assessments of evaluations of their products (see the Vendors Corner). Also, we appreciate any feedback in relation to our evaluations (e.g. errors or inaccuracies).

The pattern animations are working again

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: EVENT LOG IMPERFECTION PATTERN COLLECTION!

The quality of event data used in a process mining analysis impacts heavily on the accuracy and reliability of analysis results. The newly added Log Imperfection pattern collection includes 11 event log imperfection patterns, distilled from our experiences in preparing event logs, that neatly capture some commonly encountered quality issues associated with event logs. These patterns form the basis for a systematic approach to identifying and repairing event log quality issues which benefits both the process of preparing an event log and the quality of the resulting event log. Log Imperfection patterns are explained on the Patterns pages.

CURRENT RESEARCH: PROCESS DATA QUALITY

Our recent research in the area of Process Data Quality includes relevant projects and publications that investigate the multiple ways in which data quality issues affect process-related data, and how to identify and repair these issues to minimise information loss while not compromising the aims of process analysis.

The open-source software framework PraeclarusPDQ can be downloaded here. This framework aims to support all the functionality that we develop as part of research on process-data quality. It is an international collaboration of universities in three continents.

  
 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: THE BOOK HAS LAUNCHED!

We are pleased to announce the publication of our book - Workflow Patterns - The Definitive Guide - through MIT Press. Intended as a comprehensive guide to the workflow patterns area, the book draws on the extensive research conducted by the Workflow Patterns Initiative over the past 15 years. It offers a detailed introduction to the fundamentals of business process modeling and management, describing three major pattern catalogues, presented from the control-flow, data, and resource perspectives. It also surveys a number of related BPM patterns collections. The book will be an essential resource for both academics and practitioners working in business process modeling and business process management.

For further details, please visit the MIT Press site here

 bookcover