: International Journal of Computer Systems : Science & Engineering : : Call for Papers : : Special Issue on Flexible Workflow Technology : Driving the Networked Economy : : Guest editors : : Wil van der Aalst : Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, : Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, NL- : 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. wsinwa@win.tue.nl : : Stefan Jablonski : Department of Computer Science VI, Friedrich-Alexander : Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Martenstra?e 3, D-91058 : Erlangen, Germany. jablonski@informatik.uni-erlangen.de : : Scope : : The new millennium is characterized by speed and : distribution in every aspect of most business and : organization undertaking. Organizations are challenged : to bring ideas and concepts to products and services in : an ever-increasing pace. Companies distributed by space, : time, and capabilities come together to deliver products : and solutions for which there is any need in the global : marketplace. The trends for virtual corporations and e- : commerce, and increasing global networking of economies : are real and will accelerate. Enterprise information : systems using workflow technology will play an : increasingly critical role in providing a competitive : edge to organizations in the networked economy. The : interorganizational nature of workflow processes in the : DNE (Dynamic Networked Economy) poses all kinds of : interesting issues, e.g., How to agree on a common : business process without considering local : particularities? The coordination between processes in : different organizations is fundamentally different from : the situation where the whole process and all of the : participating resources are contained within one : organization. Another critical challenge for workflow : technology in the DNE is the ability to respond : effectively to changes. Changes may range from ad-hoc : modifications of the process for a single customer to a : complete restructuring for the workflow process to : improve efficiency. Today's WFM/ERP systems are ill- : suited to deal with change; they typically support a : more or less idealized version of the preferred process : and the real run-time process is often much more : variable than the process specified at design-time. The : only way to handle changes is to go behind the system's : back. If users are forced to bypass the workflow : management system quite frequently, the system is more a : liability than an asset. The biggest challenge we are : facing is to develop concepts, techniques, and tools to : support adaptability. Adaptability has become one of the : major research topics in the area of workflow management : and is characterized by notorious problems such as the : 'dynamic change bug' (How to migrate workflow instances : from the old to the new process if the degree of : parallelism is reduced?). : : This special issue of the International Journal of : Computer Systems Science & Engineering seeks to shed : light on the state-of-the-art and the future of workflow : technology in the dynamic networked economy. : : Topics of interest include: : * Interorganizational workflows : * Adaptive/ad-hoc workflows : * Dynamic schema evolution and workflow migration : * Workflow distribution and interoperability : * Object-oriented concepts (e.g., inheritance) to : support workflow flexibility and distribution : * Process mining and AI-based techniques : * Extensions of workflow modeling techniques (Petri : nets, state-charts, speech acts, etc.) : * Merging of groupware and workflow into workware : * Case studies and prototypes : : See : http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~wsinwa/csse_special_issue.html : for more information. : : Important dates : Paper Submission Deadline: March 1, 2000 : Feedback to Authors: May 1, 2000 : Final Manuscripts to Publisher: July 1, 2000 : Publication of Special Issue: September 2000 : : Authors should carefully read the submission guidelines : of the International Journal of Computer Systems Science : & Engineering http://www.dircon.co.uk/crl/CSSE.htm. : Papers must be in a standard non-proprietary format such : as HTML, PostScript, or PDF. Authors should send an : email to Wil van der Aalst (wsinwa@win.tue.nl) with a : URL pointing to the paper submission. If this is not : possible, submissions may be an HTML, PostScript, or PDF : email attachment. :

-- Wirtschaftsinformatik, FB5, Universitaet GH Essen Gustaf.Neumann@uni-essen.de, neumann@computer.org http://nestroy.wi-inf.uni-essen.de/Neumann.html