Adaptation and Workflow Management Systems

Today, companies – large and small – can select Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) to support their business processes. When processes are critical, it is fundamental that WfMS infrastructures continue to provide pre-established service levels to users in the face of disruptions. Adaptation ad-dresses precisely this issue. Current architectures do not incorporate adequate solutions that enhance WfMSs’ adaptation. In this paper we present a set of comprehensive techniques to be used in the development of WfMSs to increase their level of adaptation. We discuss how workflow adaptation can be triggered, which adaptation strategies can be applied, and why dynamic changes are in-dispensable to carry out adaptation. We not only target adaptation from a func-tional perspective, but also from an operational perspective. For the strategies presented, we describe their implementation to the METEOR WfMS.