TY - GEN
T1 - Workflow management systems + swarm intelligence = Dynamic task assignment for emergency management applications
AU - Reijers, Hajo A.
AU - Jansen-Vullers, Monique H.
AU - Muehlen, Michael Zur
AU - Appl, Winfried
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - The assignment of tasks to human performers is a critical component in people-centric business process management systems. Workflow management systems typically assign work items using strategies that only consider qualified resources. There are, however, situations, where this approach falls short. For instance, in emergency response situations, tasks need to be carried out by resources that are available immediately, even if they do not match all skill requirements. This paper compares the performance of a set of six task assignment mechanisms for workflow applications using a scenario from the emergency management domain. In particular, we develop and simulate assignment strategies inspired by stimulus/response models derived from swarm intelligence, and benchmark these strategies against conventional task assignment strategies. Our findings show that swarm intelligence-based approaches outperform the traditional assignment of tasks in ad-hoc organizations, and that workflow-based emergency management systems could benefit significantly from these novel task assignment strategies.
AB - The assignment of tasks to human performers is a critical component in people-centric business process management systems. Workflow management systems typically assign work items using strategies that only consider qualified resources. There are, however, situations, where this approach falls short. For instance, in emergency response situations, tasks need to be carried out by resources that are available immediately, even if they do not match all skill requirements. This paper compares the performance of a set of six task assignment mechanisms for workflow applications using a scenario from the emergency management domain. In particular, we develop and simulate assignment strategies inspired by stimulus/response models derived from swarm intelligence, and benchmark these strategies against conventional task assignment strategies. Our findings show that swarm intelligence-based approaches outperform the traditional assignment of tasks in ad-hoc organizations, and that workflow-based emergency management systems could benefit significantly from these novel task assignment strategies.
KW - Business process management
KW - Swarm intelligence
KW - Task assignment
KW - Workflow
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38049129488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38049129488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-75183-0_10
DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-75183-0_10
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:38049129488
SN - 9783540751823
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 125
EP - 140
BT - Business Process Management - 5th International Conference, BPM 2007, Proceedings
T2 - 5th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2007
Y2 - 24 September 2007 through 28 September 2007
ER -