SmartPM - Featuring Automatic Adaptation to Unplanned Exceptions

Process Management Systems (PMSs) are currently more and more used as a supporting tool for cooperative processes in pervasive and highly dynamic situations, such as emergency situations or pervasive health-care. In these scenarios, the environment may change in a way that was not expected so as to prevent processes from being successfully carried out. The frequency and the types of unexpected changes are significantly higher and larger than in classical business domains. Therefore, a manual adaptation is not feasible as well as defining in advance how to manage all possible changes which may occur. This paper illustrates SmartPM, a model and a prototype PMS that features a set of sound and complete techniques to automatically cope with unplanned changes. Specifically, the theoretical foundation and the general framework will be described, as well as the concrete implementation and its validation.