Weakly-structured Workflows for Knowledge-intensive Tasks: An Experimental Evaluation

Knowledge-intensive activities can typically not be modeled sufficiently by classical, static process models and workflows. To enable a process-oriented knowledge management approach under these circumstances, the concept of weakly-structured workflows has been developed. This approach integrates process modeling and workflow enactment and facilitates active information support in dynamically changing process environments. Furthermore, the approach allows process knowledge itself to be used as a valuable resource in knowledge management. In order to investigate whether this approach is viable and useful for supporting knowledge-intensive activities we designed and performed a comprehensive experimental evaluation. We outline the conceptual approach and realization in an agent-based software framework for organizational memories and describe the experimental settings. The results of the experiment demonstrate the viability of our key concepts.