Workflow simulation for operational decision support

• DOI: 10.1016/j.datak.2009.02.014
• Publication Date: 2009-03-10T05:07:36Z
• Authors: A. Rozinat; M.T. Wynn; W.M.P. van der Aalst; A.H.M. ter Hofstede; C.J. Fidge
• Keywords: Process Mining; Short-Term Simulation; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; Workflow Management

Simulation is widely used as a tool for analyzing business processes but is mostly focused on examining rather abstract steady-state situations. Such analyses are helpful for the initial design of a business process but are less suitable for operational decision making and continuous improvement. Here we describe a simulation system for operational decision support in the context of workflow management. To do this we exploit not only the workflow's design, but also logged data describing the system's observed historic behavior, and information extracted about the current state of the workflow. Making use of actual data capturing the current state and historic information allows our simulations to accurately predict potential near-future behaviors for different scenarios. The approach is supported by a practical toolset which combines and extends the workflow management system YAWL and the process mining framework ProM. This technical report contains a detailed description of how a simulation model including operational decision support can be generated by our software based on the running example.