A Flexible Agent-Based Framework for Process Management

Information technology support for complex, dynamic, and distributed business processes as they occur in engineering domains requires an advanced process management system which enhances currently available workflow management services with respect to integration, flexibility, and adaptation. We present an uniform and flexible framework for advanced process management on an abstract level which uses and adapts agent technology from distributed artificial intelligence for both modelling and enacting of processes. We identify two different frameworks for applying agent technology to process management: First, as a multi-agent system with the domain of process management. Second, as a key infrastructure technology for building a process management system. We will then follow the latter approach and introduce different agent types for managing activities, products, and resources which capture specific views on the process.