Modeling workflow processes with colored Petri nets

The de®nition and maintenance of work¯ow processes have become important tasks for enterprises as work¯ow management systems (WFMS) are systematically applied to critical business processes. In order to simplify the management and usage of work¯ow processes and to integrate with other applications, a good modeling method is essential. The WFCP-net (work¯ow-net based on colored Petri net) is an extension of the work¯ow-net (WF-net) which can be used to model family of work¯ow processes with similar process routes and logic rules. An expanding suite of tools, which currently includes, can support its application: a process structure graph editor, a WF script (work¯ow script language for writing business rules) editor and translator (translate WF script into Java classes) and a dynamically loadable work¯ow engine.