Workflow management systems + swarm intelligence = Dynamic task assignment for emergency management applications

Hajo A. Reijers, Monique H. Jansen-Vullers, Michael Zur Muehlen, Winfried Appl

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBusiness Process Management - 5th International Conference, BPM 2007, Proceedings
Pages125-140
Number of pages16
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event5th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2007 - Brisbane, Australia
Duration: 24 Sep 200728 Sep 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4714 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference5th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2007
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityBrisbane
Period24/09/0728/09/07

Keywords

  • Business process management
  • Swarm intelligence
  • Task assignment
  • Workflow

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