Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai Cluj-Napoca
Facultatea de Matematică şi Informatică
Ciclul de studii: Masterat
Domeniul: Informatica
Programul de studii: Programare bazată pe componente - în limba engleză
Limba de predare: Engleză

SYLLABUS

I. General data
Code	Subject	
MID1008	Workflow Systems	

Semester	Hours: C+S+L	Category	Status	
3	2+2+0	speciality	optional	

II. Full status faculty members
Name and	Scientific	Didactic	Chair	Type of activity	
surname	title	title		C	S	L	
NICULESCU Virginia	Ph.D.	Assoc.Prof.	Programming  Languages and Methods	*			

Associated faculty members
Name and	Scientific	Institution	Type of	Type of activity	
surname	title		position	C	S	L	

III. Course objectives
•	To introduce the notions of ‘workflow’, and workflow system.
•	To analyze several workflow case studies in order to emphasize the advantages of automated workflow.
•	To emphasize the relation between workflow technology and business processes management
•	To present the workflow reference model BPR / BPEL
•	To presents the most important workflow patterns.
•	To present several concrete solutions for workflow modeling.

IV. Course contents
1.	Introduction. 
2.	Workflow classifications:
3.	Workflow basic building block structures
4.	The workflow reference model 
5.	Business Process Management
6.	Workflow patterns
7.	Workflow systems modeling 
8.   Case studies	

V. Bibliography
1.	Wil van der Aalst, Kees van Hee: Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems, B&T, ISBN 0-262-72046-9
2.	van Der Aalst, Hofstede, Arthur H.M.; Kiepuszewski, Bartek; Barros, Alistair P. (2003). "Workflow Patterns". Distributed and Parallel Databases 14: 5--51. 
3.	Layna Fischer: Workflow Handbook 2005, Future Strategies, ISBN 0-9703509-8-8 
4.	BPMN Specification http://www.bpmn.org/ 
5.	Stephen A. White, Introduction to BPMN - IBM May 2004
6.	Workflow Reference Model http://www.wfmc.org/standards/referencemodel.htm
7.	UML specification, http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/uml.htm
8.	Peterson, James L. (1977). "Petri Nets". ACM Computing Surveys 9 (3): 223–252. 
9.	Wil van der Aalst, Kees van Hee, Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems 
MIT Press, 2002, ISBN: 0-262-01189-1.
10.	T. Murata, Petri Nets: Properties, Analysis and Applications Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 77, No 4, April, 1989, pp. 541-580.	

VI. Thematic of didactic activities per weeks
Week 1
1.	Introduction. [3, 1]
1.1 Terminology. 
      1.2 Definitions.
      1.3 Workflow concept evolution
      1.4 Primitive elements: object, task, transfer, resource, attribute, rule, route
Week 2, Week 3
2.	Workflow classifications: [3]
  2.1 Document-centric / object-centric /  solution-centric
  2.2 Ad-Hoc / Production / Administrative
  2.3 Horizontal vs. Vertical
  2.4 Embedded/ Stand Alone
Week 4
3.	Workflow basic building block structures [3,1]
3.1	Sequential
3.2	Forked
3.3	Iterative
3.4	Asynchronous
Week  5
4	The workflow reference model [6]
4.1	Workflow Reference Model Diagram
4.2	Workflow Enactment Services
4.3	Process Definition 
4.4	Workflow Client Functions
4.5	Invoked Application Functions
4.6	Workflow Interoperability
4.7	System Administration & Monitoring 
4.8	WAPI Structure, Protocol, and Conformance
Week 6-7
5	Business Process Management  [4, 5]
5.1	Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
5.2	Business Process Execution Language (BPML)
Week 8-10
6.	Workflow patterns [2]
6.1.	Basic Control Patterns
6.2.	Advanced Branching and Synchronization Patterns
6.3.	Structural Patterns
6.4.	Multiple Instances (MI)
6.5.	State-based patterns
6.6.	Cancellation Patterns
Week 11-13
7.	Workflow systems modeling 
   7.1 Activity diagrams [7]
   7.2 Petri nets [9,10]
Week 14
8. Case studies

VII. Didactic methods used
Expositions: description, explanation, class lectures, dialog-based lectures, introductive lectures, current lectures, synthesis lectures. 
Conversations: debate, dialog, introductive conversations, conversations for knowledge consolidation, conversations to systematize and synthesize knowledge 
Use of problems: use of problem questions, problems and problem situations. 
Discovery: directed and independent rediscovery, creative discovery, inductive discovery, deductive discovery, experimental discovery. 
Other methods: case study; cooperation, brainstorming, individual study, exercise, homework study.
Students will be organized in teams of 3 to 5 members. Each team will solve a workflow problem.	

VIII. Assessment
The final mark will cover lab work (i.e. completing a project) and research work (preparing a research paper), as well as the written exam results. It is computed as follows, on a 10-point scale:
•	1pt by default
•	1pt attendance
•	2pts the project
•	2pts the paper
•	4pts the written exam.	

IX. Additional references

1.	Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee, Workflow Management, MIT Press 2002.
2.	Howard Smith and Peter Fingan, Business Process Management - the third wave, Meghan-Kiffer Press 2003. 
3.	Hajo A. Reijers, Design and Control of Workflow Processes, Springer Publishers 2003.

	Date,							Course responsible,
							Assoc.Prof. NICULESCU Virginia, Ph.D.