Enforcing the Repeated Execution of Logic in Workflows

Abstract—The repeated execution of workflow logic is a feature needed in many situations. Repetition of activities can be modeled with workflow constructs (e.g., loops) or external workflow configurations, or can be triggered by a user action during workflow execution. While the first two options are state of the art in the workflow technology, the latter is currently insufficiently addressed in literature and practice. We argue that a manually triggered rerun operation enables both business users and scientists to react to unforeseen problems and thus improves workflow robustness, allows scientists steering the convergence of scientific results, and facilitates an explorative workflow development as required in scientific workflows. In this paper, we therefore formalize operations for the repeated enactment of activities—for both iteration and re-execution. Starting point of the rerun is an arbitrary, manually selected activity. Since we define the operations on a meta-model level, they can be implemented for different workflow languages and engines. Keywords-service composition; workflow adaptability; iteration; re-execution. I