syllabus
1. Information regarding the programme
1.1 Higher education institution 	“Babes_Bolyai” University	
1.2 Faculty	Faculty of Mathematics and Computer science	
1.3 Department	Department of Computer Science	
1.4 Field of study	Informatics(Computer Science)	
1.5 Study cycle	Master	
1.6 Study programme / Qualification 	Computer Science	

2. Information regarding the discipline 
2.1 Name of the discipline	Workflow Systems	
2.2 Course coordinator 	Assoc.Prof.PhD. Niculescu Virginia	
2.3 Seminar coordinator	Assoc.Prof.PhD. Niculescu Virginia	
2.4. Year of study	2	2.5 Semester	3	2.6. Type of evaluation	C.	2.7 Type of discipline	Optional	

3. Total estimated time (hours/semester of didactic activities) 
3.1 Hours per week 	3	Of which: 3.2 course	2	3.3 seminar/laboratory	1 sem. 	
3.4 Total hours in the curriculum 	42	Of which: 3.5 course	28	3.6 seminar/laboratory	14	
Time allotment:	hours	
Learning using manual, course support, bibliography, course notes	20	
Additional documentation (in libraries, on electronic platforms, field documentation) 	10	
Preparation for seminars/labs, homework, papers, portfolios and essays	23	
Tutorship	7	
Evaluations	20	
Other activities: ..................	-	
3.7 Total individual study hours 	80	
3.8 Total hours per semester	150	
3.9 Number of ECTS credits	6	

4. Prerequisites (if necessary)
4.1. curriculum	•	Algorithmics, Fundamentals of Programming	
4.2. competencies	•	Programming skills and basic abilities for dealing with abstractions	

5. Conditions (if necessary)
5.1. for the course	•	projector	
5.2.  for the seminar 	•	projector	

6. Specific competencies acquired 
Professional competencies	•	Each student has to prove that (s)he acquired an acceptable level of knowledge and understanding of the subject, that (s)he is capable of stating these knowledge in a coherent form, that (s)he has correct habits of analysis, design of problems related to workflow systems.
	
Transversal competencies	•	Ability to use a workflow system tool in order to define and implement a business process.

7. Objectives of the discipline (outcome of the acquired competencies)
7.1 General objective of the discipline
	•	To introduce the notions of ‘workflow’, and workflow system.
•	To analyze several workflow case studies in order to emphasize the advantages of automated workflow.
	
7.2 Specific objective of the discipline
	•	To emphasize the relation between workflow technology and business processes management
•	To present the workflow reference model.
•	To presents the most important workflow patterns.
•	To present several concrete solutions for workflow modeling.

8. Content
8.1 Course	Teaching methods	Remarks	
1.	
•	Introduction. [3, 1]
o	Terminology. 
o	Definitions.
o	Workflow concept evolution
o	Primitive elements: object, task, transfer, resource, attribute, rule, route
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
2.	 
•	Workflow classifications: [3]
o	 Document-centric / object-centric /  solution-centric
o	Ad-Hoc / Production / Administrative
o	Horizontal vs. Vertical
o	 Embedded/ Stand Alone	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
3.	
•	Workflow basic building block structures [3,1]
o	Sequential
o	Forked
o	Iterative
o	Asynchronous	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
4.	
•	The workflow reference model [6]
o	Workflow Reference Model Diagram
o	Workflow Enactment Services
o	Process Definition 
o	Workflow Client Functions
o	Invoked Application Functions
o	Workflow Interoperability
o	System Administration & Monitoring 
o	WAPI Structure, Protocol, and Conformance	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
5.	
•	Workflow systems modeling
•	 Activity diagrams [7]
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
6.	 
•	Workflow systems modeling
•	Petri nets [1,9]
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		

7.	
•	Business Process Management  [4, 5]
o	Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
8.	
•	Business Process Management  [4, 5]
•	Business Process Execution Language (BPML)
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
9.	  
•	Workflow patterns [2]
o	Basic Control Patterns
o	Advanced Branching and Synchronization Patterns
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
10.	 
•	Workflow patterns [2]
o	Structural Patterns
o	Multiple Instances (MI)
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
11.	 
•	Workflow patterns [2]
o	State-based patterns
o	Cancellation Patterns
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		

12.	
WS –management of the  resource allocation +patterns for resource allocation 
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
13.	(Re)designing workflows-Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
14.	 
-Case studies	Exposure: description, explanation, examples, discussion of case studies		
Bibliography
1.	Wil van der Aalst, Kees van Hee: Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems, MIT Press, 2002, ISBN: 0-262-01189-1
2.	Wil 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. 
T. Murata, Petri Nets: Properties, Analysis and Applications Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 77, No 4, April, 1989, pp. 541-580.	
8.2 Seminar 	Teaching methods	Remarks	
1.	UML activity diagrams - examples	Explanation, dialogue, case studies	The seminar is structured as 2 hours classes every second week	
2.	Petri Nets -examples
	Dialogue, debate, case studies, examples, proofs		
3.	BPMN -examples	Dialogue, debate, case studies, examples, proofs		
4.	Workflow patterns – analysis, examples and discussions
	Dialogue, debate,  explanation, examples		
5.	Student presentations
	Dialogue, debate,  explanation, examples		
6.	Student presentations

	Dialogue, debate,  explanation, examples		
7.	Student presentations
	Dialogue, debate,  explanation, examples		
Bibliography

1.	Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee, Workflow Management, MIT Press 2004.
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.

9. Corroborating the content of the discipline with the expectations of the epistemic community, professional associations and representative employers within the field of the program

•	The course respects the IEEE and ACM Curricula Recommendations for Computer Science studies;
•	The course exists in the studying program of all major universities in Romania and abroad;

	

10. Evaluation
Type of activity	10.1 Evaluation criteria	10.2 Evaluation methods	10.3 Share in the grade (%)	
10.4 Course	- know the basic principles and paradigms of the domain;
- to be able to use the presented models for solving problems	Presentations,
questions
	20%
	
10.5 Seminar	 - a written paper (research) that presents a workflow system management tool.	-presentation
-discussion
	80%	
10.6 Minimum performance standards	
•	At least grade 5 (from a scale of 1 to 10) for the final grade.	

Date				Signature of course coordinator 	Signature of seminar coordinator
....1.10.2012.......		...............Niculescu Virginia....................Niculescu Virginia		

Date of approval  					  Signature of the head of department	
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