An Approach For The Performance Evaluation Of Workflow Models

Many companies are reengineering their business processes to improve business performance. Often pictorial descriptions of the processes are used to understand the as-is structure and to conduct what-if analysis. We propose a colored stochastic Petri Net (CGSPN) approach to model enterprise workflow that is formally defined by a process model graph (PMgraph) . Dynamic performance studies can then be carried out by means of simulation. Due to the state space explosion exact steady-state analysis of the underlying stochastic process can be provided for small processes only. We propose a load-equivalent aggregation (LEA) of single classes of work items for an approximate solution. The LEA allows the substitution of processes by their aggregated model of less complexity while preserving the load inducing behavior. INTRODUCTION Due to permanent changing market conditions the organization of a company has to be under continuous consideration and performance evaluation to ensure operational..