I am involved in a project investigating how computing can provide "intelligent" agents/services to improve the functionality of existing workflow technology. Some key areas we have identified for further investigation include task assignment (computer-supported assignments of tasks to agents based on an expressive model of the organization's hierachy, resources, members, their skills, experience and workload etc), exception handling (providing customizable policies for dealing with contingencies like approaching/passed deadlines, missing resources, changing requirements) and queue management (identifying opportunities to reduce work by merging common subtasks across multiple tasks in an individuals' work queue).
Just to give you an example, we have been investigating the use of rationale capture technology to record the reasons for a given workflow having a given structure to facilitate computer-supported workflow modification in response to exceptional conditions such as resource availability changes.
I would appreciate any pointers people can offer to publications or research groups addressing this area, and would be glad to share the pointers I already have.
Thanks,
Mark Klein
-------------------- Mark Klein, PhD Boeing Computer Services Building 33-07, Mailstop 7L-44 2760 160th Ave SE Bellevue WA 98008 USA
Voice: (206) 865-3412 Fax: (206) 865-2964 Email: mklein@atc.boeing.com
--------------------
Mark Klein, PhD Boeing Computer Services Building 33-07, Mailstop 7L-44 2760 160th Ave SE Bellevue WA 98008 USA
Voice: (206) 865-3412 Fax: (206) 865-2964 Email: mklein@atc.boeing.com