A graph distance based metric for data oriented workflow retrieval with variable time constraints

ISCAS OpenIR

	A graph distance based metric for data oriented workflow retrieval with variable time constraints
	Ma, Yinglong (1); Zhang, Xiaolan (1); Lu, Ke (3); Ma, Y.(yinglongma@gmail.com)
	2014
发表期刊	Expert Systems with Applications
ISSN	9574174
卷号	41 期号:4 PART 1 页码:1377-1388
摘要	There are many applications in business process management that require measuring the similarity between business processes, such as workflow retrieval and process mining, etc. However, most existing approaches and models cannot represent variable constraints and achieve data oriented workflow retrieval of considering different QoS requirements, and also fail to allow users to express arbitrary constraints based on graph structures of workflows. These problems will impede the customization and reuse of workflows, especially for data oriented workflows. In this paper, we will be towards workflow retrieval with variable time constraints. We propose a graph distance based approach for measuring the similarity between data oriented workflows with variable time constraints. First, a formal structure called Time Dependency Graph (TDG) is proposed and further used as representation model of workflows. Similarity comparison between two workflows can be reduced to computing the similarity between their TDGs. Second, we detect whether two TDGs of workflows for similarity comparison are compatible. A distance based measure is proposed for computing their similarity by their normalization matrices established based on their TDGs. We theoretically proof that the proposed measure satisfies the all the properties of distance. In addition, some exemplar processes are studied to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach of similarity comparison for workflows. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.; There are many applications in business process management that require measuring the similarity between business processes, such as workflow retrieval and process mining, etc. However, most existing approaches and models cannot represent variable constraints and achieve data oriented workflow retrieval of considering different QoS requirements, and also fail to allow users to express arbitrary constraints based on graph structures of workflows. These problems will impede the customization and reuse of workflows, especially for data oriented workflows. In this paper, we will be towards workflow retrieval with variable time constraints. We propose a graph distance based approach for measuring the similarity between data oriented workflows with variable time constraints. First, a formal structure called Time Dependency Graph (TDG) is proposed and further used as representation model of workflows. Similarity comparison between two workflows can be reduced to computing the similarity between their TDGs. Second, we detect whether two TDGs of workflows for similarity comparison are compatible. A distance based measure is proposed for computing their similarity by their normalization matrices established based on their TDGs. We theoretically proof that the proposed measure satisfies the all the properties of distance. In addition, some exemplar processes are studied to illustrate the effectiveness of our approach of similarity comparison for workflows. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
收录类别	SCI ; EI
关键词	Business Process Management Data Oriented Workflow Similarity Computation Process Mining Process Retrieval
部门归属	(1) School of Control and Computer Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; (2) State Key Laboratory of Computer Science, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; (3) University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000330158700040
引用统计
内容类型	期刊论文
URI标识	http://ir.iscas.ac.cn/handle/311060/16870
专题	中国科学院软件研究所
通讯作者	Ma, Y.(yinglongma@gmail.com)
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Ma, Yinglong ,Zhang, Xiaolan ,Lu, Ke ,et al. A graph distance based metric for data oriented workflow retrieval with variable time constraints[J]. Expert Systems with Applications,2014,41(4 PART 1):1377-1388.
APA	Ma, Yinglong ,Zhang, Xiaolan ,Lu, Ke ,&Ma, Y..(2014).A graph distance based metric for data oriented workflow retrieval with variable time constraints.Expert Systems with Applications,41(4 PART 1),1377-1388.
MLA	Ma, Yinglong ,et al."A graph distance based metric for data oriented workflow retrieval with variable time constraints".Expert Systems with Applications 41.4 PART 1(2014):1377-1388.