Dynamic and extensible exception handling for workflows: A service-oriented implementation

Abstract. This paper presents the realisation, using a Service Oriented Architecture, of an approach for dynamic, flexible and extensible excep-tion handling in workflows, based not on proprietary frameworks, but on accepted ideas of how people actually work. The approach utilises an established framework for workflow flexibility called worklets and a de-tailed taxonomy of workflow exception patterns to provide an extensible repertoire of self-contained exception-handling processes which may be applied at the task, case or specification levels, and from which a dynamic runtime selection is made depending on the context of the exception and the particular work instance. Both expected and unexpected exceptions are catered for in real time, so that ‘manual handling ’ of the exception is avoided. Key words: workflow exception handling, workflow flexibility, service oriented architecture, worklet