Enhancing the flexibility of workflow execution by activity anticipation

This paper introduces an evolution to classical workflow model that allows more flexible execution of processes while retaining its simplicity. Processes are described in the same way they are represented in design and engineering manuals, but the workflow system allows a flexible execution that is closer to the way participants actually execute their tasks in cooperative processes without computer support. This evolution is based on the concept of anticipation, that is, the weakening of strict sequential execution of activity sequences in workflows by enabling intermediate results to be used as preliminary input into succeeding activities. The concept can also be applied to provide rapid feedback to preceding activities and to improve parallelism between activities in the main process and its subprocesses. The architecture and implementation of a workflow execution engine prototype enabling anticipation is described.ou