Patent Application
20080209435
Workflow management (“WFM”) systems are computing systems that provide functionality for modeling business processes along with the ability to implement and monitor the procedural and computational aspects of each process. For example, a corporation may utilize a WFM system to model a business process for generating a rolling forecast for sales generated by the organization. As part of the modeling process, the employees of the corporation that submit data as a part of the process are identified, as are the supervisors that are responsible for approving or rejecting the data submitted by the employees.
When such a model is executed by a WFM system, the system utilizes the model to manage the procedural aspects of the process. For instance, a request for the submission of data may be generated and transmitted to the employees identified by the model as being responsible for supplying the data. When the data is submitted, it is stored in a database for use in business reporting and business calculations also defined within the model. An appropriate supervisory employee may also be requested to approve the submission. For instance, in the rolling sales forecast example, one employee may be responsible for submitting sales figures for North America while another employee is responsible for submitting sales figures for Europe. These figures may then be stored in a database for use in business reporting and business calculations performed by the WFM system, such as using the figures to compute a worldwide sales figure. Appropriate supervisory employees within the organization may be required to approve the submissions.
Previous WFM systems are often unable to maintain high performance operation when the number of concurrent work items, like database writeback operations, increases dramatically. For instance, such previous solutions may be able to provide acceptable performance during normal levels of activity. However, when the activity level spikes dramatically, such as during end-of-month processing, previous WFM systems may become unresponsive. Moreover, previous WFM systems may be limited in their ability to allow the operational state of the WFM system to be controlled. For instance, in previous WFM systems it may be very difficult to take the WFM system offline without losing data.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is provided.
Technologies are described herein for providing a scalable WFM system. Through aspects presented herein, the performance of a WFM system may be scaled to allow highly responsive operation even as the number of concurrently submitted work items, such as writeback operations, increases dramatically. Moreover, through other aspects described herein, the operational state of a WFM system may be easily controlled to thereby specify the time periods in which data may be submitted to the WFM system or to take the entire WFM system offline without the risk of losing valuable data.
According to one aspect presented herein, a scalable WFM system is provided that includes a multi-tiered architecture that provides significant performance improvements as compared to previous WFM systems. In one tier, queues for storing work items submitted to the WFM system are provided. For instance, a queue may be provided for temporarily storing writeback operations that include data submitted by a user of the WFM system. Work items may be queued by front-end services executing within another tier of the WFM system. When a work item is placed on the queue, it remains there until a back-end service can de-queue the work item, validate the de-queued work item, and process the de-queued work item. By queuing work items in this manner in a WFM system, the WFM system can be scaled to maintain responsiveness to client applications or services queuing work items, even when the back-end services responsible for actually processing the work items are operating under a heavy load. Moreover, more back-end services can be dynamically added to offload the processing load.
According to another aspect presented herein, a scalable WFM system is provided that includes multiple queues for storing work items. A normal queue is provided for storing normal work items, such as user writeback operations, that are generated asynchronously. A scheduler queue is provided for storing work items that are generated according to a time schedule. For instance, a front-end service may be utilized within the WFM system that instantiates work items according to a time schedule defined within the business process. A job queue is also provided for storing work items generated by job launching services executing within the WFM system. More than one queue may be delegated for performing the same type of work.
According to yet another aspect presented herein, a WFM system is provided that can be operated in one of several states of operation. In particular, the WFM system may be operated in an online state wherein work items can be placed onto the queues and removed from the queues. The WFM system may also be placed in an asynchronous offline state wherein work items may be placed onto the queues, but not removed from the queues. The WFM system may also be placed in a locked state, wherein users of the WFM system may read data from the WFM system but not write data. The WFM system can be transitioned between the various states of operation without losing data in the queues. The state of operation of the WFM system can be controlled from an administrative console application program.
The above-described subject matter may also be implemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a computer process, a computing system, or as an article of manufacture such as a computer-readable medium. These and various other features will be apparent from a reading of the following Detailed Description and a review of the associated drawings.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended that this Summary be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.
The following detailed description is directed to technologies for providing a high-performance, scalable WFM system. As will be discussed in greater detail below, a multi-tiered WFM system is provided herein that can be scaled to improve application performance as the number of work items submitted to the system increases. Moreover, the state of operation of the WFM system provided herein can be managed through the use of an administrative console application to modify the operational state of the WFM system as needed.
While the subject matter described herein is presented in the general context of program modules that execute in conjunction with the execution of an operating system and application programs on a computer system, those skilled in the art will recognize that other implementations may be performed in combination with other types of program modules. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the subject matter described herein may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like.
In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments or examples. Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals represent like elements through the several figures, aspects of a computing system and methodology for providing a scalable WFM system will be described. In particular,
The illustrative network computing architecture 100 shown in
The second tier of the network computing architecture 100 shown in
The third tier of the network computing architecture 100 shown in
It should be appreciated that while
As discussed above, several queues may be maintained for storing work items within a WMF system prior to processing. In the case of the three-tiered network architecture shown in
The exemplary WFM system illustrated in
The metadata contained in the business process definition 234 defines the procedural aspects of a business process in terms of cycles and assignments. A cycle defines the scenario for the business process and the window of time in which the business process should be executed. Cycles may be defined as occurring one time only or as recurrent cycles. For instance, a recurring cycle may be defined for calculating sales figures that recurs at the beginning of each month. A cycle may be locked, unlocked, opened, or closed independently of other cycles.
Assignments are work activities that are defined within each cycle. An assignment may be made to a single user or a group of users. A set of data entry forms may also be associated with an assignment. For example, an assignment may require that a user provide a sales figure using a specified data entry form. Because assignments belong to cycles, different instances of the same assignment are created for different cycles. In this manner, the same assignment may exist concurrently in multiple cycles. Assignments may also contain properties specifying an approval chain or other validation rules that a data submission associated with the assignment must pass through for the assignment to be completed.
Jobs may also be generated by services executing within the WFM system as part of a cycle or assignment. For instance, a scheduled job service 226 may execute within the WFM system for launching jobs according to a schedule. As an example, the scheduled job service 226 may launch a job for generating a report according to a schedule set forth in the business process definition 234. Another job may be periodically instantiated for reprocessing the contents of a database, such as the online analytical processing (“OLAP”) database 220.
Cycles, assignments, and jobs may generate work items 215 in conjunction with their execution. Work items 215 are tasks that must be performed as a part of the execution of a cycle, assignment, or job within a modeled business process. For instance, a work item 215 may constitute a database writeback operation performed in response to the submission of data to the WFM system by a user. In order to remain responsive to user submissions, the WFM system must process work items 215 in an efficient manner. If work items 215 cannot be processed efficiently, an undesirable delay may be imposed upon users of the WFM system during data submission.
In order to process work items 215 in an efficient manner, the WFM system illustrated in
The asynchronous request services 206 place work items 215 on the queues 214 asynchronously, and include the data submission front-end services 208A-208B and the asynchronous job launching service 212. The data submission front-end services 208A-208B receive data submissions form client applications and place appropriate work items 215 for the submitted data on the queues 214. The number of data submission front-end services 208A-208B may be scaled to handle a large number of client data submissions and other types of client requests such as reporting or what-if analysis. The asynchronous job launching service 212 is utilized to asynchronously place work items 215 on the queues 214 corresponding to system jobs.
The timed request services 222 place work items 215 on the queues 214 according to a time schedule. For instance, the cycle rollover service 224 is responsible for creating a new instance of a cycle according to a recurrence pattern defined within the cycle. In a similar fashion, the assignment start service 228 is responsible for instantiating new scheduled assignments. The scheduled job service 226 is responsible for instantiating jobs according to a specified time schedule. For instance, the scheduled job service 226 may queue work items for performing business calculations or performing outbound recording. Each of the services 224, 226, and 228, place the appropriate work items 215 on the queues 214 using the service broker timer 238. The service broker timer 238 ensures that the work items 215 are placed on the appropriate queue at the appropriate time. Because work items 215 are placed on the queues 214, rather than being directly consumed by back-end services, a high level of responsiveness to client applications can be maintained.
It should be appreciated that the events and jobs executing within the WFM system presented herein may have a cascading effect that triggers the execution of other events and jobs. For instance, the execution of a cycle may start a work item that instantiates various jobs and assignments. The jobs and assignments, in turn, may set and queue timed events for other jobs and assignments to begin. It should be appreciated that many cycles, work items, assignments, and jobs may trigger other objects in a similar manner.
The work items 215 placed on the queues 214 are de-queued and processed by other services executing within the WFM system. In particular, the services 216A-216N (which may be referred to herein as back-end services) are responsible for de-queuing work items 215, validating the work items 215, and performing processing as indicated by the work items 215. The services 216A-216N de-queue work items 215 as computational capabilities are made available. Moreover, the services 216A-216N can scale to multiple computing systems, thereby providing flexibility to add new hardware to the WFM system shown in
To illustrate the use of the queues 214, the generation and processing of an illustrative data submission assignment 236 will now be described. In this example, a business process definition 234 indicates that the assignment 236 should be instantiated as part of a cycle. The cycle rollover service 224 is responsible for instantiating the cycle and the assignment start service 228 is responsible for instantiating the assignment 236. Once the assignment 236 has been instantiated, the assignment 236 is provided to a user of the WFM system. As mentioned briefly above, an e-mail client application, a Web browser application, or another type of application program capable of displaying the assignment 236 to a user may be utilized to view the assignment 236.
In response to receiving the assignment 236, a user may generate data that should be stored in the fact table 218 and the OLAP database 220. For instance, a user may utilize a client application 202, such as a spreadsheet application program, to generate the requested data. In one implementation, this data is represented as an extensible markup language (“XML”) change list 204 that includes data describing how the generated data should be stored within the fact table 218 and the OLAP database 220. It should be appreciated, however, that the change list 204 may comprise any type of package or document format. It may also be compressed and/or encrypted to allow more efficient and secure network transmission. It should also be appreciated that, in addition to the change list 204, the client application 202 may also submit one or more documents that support the contents of the change list 204. For instance, a spreadsheet document that includes the underlying computations utilized to arrive at the contents of the change list 204 may be submitted. A back-end service executing within the WFM system can verify the contents of the supporting documents and store the documents in an appropriate database or document library within the WFM system.
When the user submits the data requested in the assignment 236 to the WFM system, the change list 204 is received by one of the data submission front-end services 208A-208B. In response thereto, the front-end service that receives the change list 204 places a database writeback work item 215 on the service broker queues 214 indicating that the change list 204 should be applied to the fact table 218 and the OLAP database 220. The appropriate service 216A de-queues the database writeback work item 215 from the queues 214 and processes the work item 215. In this example, the service 216A makes the appropriate change in the fact table 218. Another service 216B may be executed by the scheduled job service 226 for periodically reprocessing the contents of the fact table 218 into the OLAP database 220. Additional details regarding the structure and use of the queues 214 will be provided below with respect to
According to embodiments, the software architecture 200 also includes an administrative console application program 232. The administrative console application program 230 communicates with the various services and software components described above to control the state of operation of the WFM system embodied by the software architecture 200. For instance, a system administrator may utilize the administrative console application program 232 to place the WFM system online or to lock the operation of the WFM system. Additional details regarding the operation of the administrative console application program 232 with regard to changing the state of the WFM system shown in
Within the WFM system, three queue monitors are provided for monitoring the queues 304A-304C, 306A-306C, and 308A-308C. In particular, the normal queue monitor 310 monitors the normal queues 304A-304C, the schedule queue monitor 312 monitors the scheduler queues 306A-306C, and the job queue monitor 314 monitors the contents of the job queues 308A-308C. In one implementation, each queue monitor instantiates multiple threads for handling queued work items. For instance, threads may be instantiated for de-queuing work items from the appropriate queue, validating the work item, executing the work item, and updating the status of the work item on the appropriate queue. Each monitor may also utilize a fairness algorithm to pick the right application queue from which the next work item should be de-queued.
Referring now to
The routine 400 begins at operation 402, where cycles, assignments, and jobs are instantiated by the WFM system in the manner described above. As discussed above, the cycles, assignments, and jobs are defined by the business process definition 234 and instantiated by the various services executing within the WFM system, such as the cycle rollover service 224 and the assignment start service 228. Once the appropriate cycles, assignments, and jobs have been instantiated, the routine 400 continues to operation 404.
At operation 404, work items are placed onto the service broker queues 214 by the cycles, assignments, and jobs. For instance, as described above, a user data submission may result in a work item 215 being placed on the service broker queues by one of the data submission front-end services 208A-208B. Other services may place work items on the service broker queues 214 in a similar manner. From operation 404, the routine 400 continues to operation 406, where the queue monitors 310, 312, and 314 determine if work items 215 are present in the queue 214 that should be de-queued. If no work items 215 are presented for de-queuing, the routine 400 returns to operation 402 where additional assignments and jobs may be instantiated. If work items 215 are present in the queues 214 for de-queuing, the routine 400 proceeds from operation 406 to operation 408.
At operation 408, a determination is made as to whether the de-queued work item 215 is valid. If the work item 215 is invalid, the routine 400 proceeds to operation 410 where the work item is de-queued, but not processed. An error handling mechanism may be implemented to take appropriate actions if the work item is not valid. If the work item 215 is valid, the routine 400 continues from operation 408 to operation 412, where the de-queued work item is processed. For instance, in the case of a work item corresponding to a user data submission, the service 216A may write the submitted data to the fact table 218. From operations 410 and 412, the routine 400 returns to operation 402, described above.
Turning now to
The state machine 500 begins operation at state 502 which is an initialized state. In the initialized state, the WFM system is prepared and ready to transition to other runtime states, described below. From state 502, the state machine 500 moves to the online state 508. The online state 508 is the normal operational state for the WFM system wherein the WFM system allows work items to be placed on the queues 214, users can read data from the WFM system and write data to the WFM system, and work items may be de-queued from the queues 214. From the online state 514, the WFM system may be placed into the asynchronous offline state 510 or the deleted state 516. In the deleted state 516, the application is deleted and no further processing is performed.
In the asynchronous offline state 510, work items may be placed onto the queues 214. However, services executing within the WFM system are not permitted to de-queue work items from the queues 214. From the asynchronous offline state 510, the WFM system may be placed back into the online state 508, into the offline state 512, or into the locked state 514. In the offline state 512, work items are not placed on the queues 214 or de-queued, and users may not read or write data to or from the WFM system. In the locked state 514, users of the WFM system may read data from the WFM system but not write data. From the offline state 512, the WFM system may be transitioned back to the online state 508, to the asynchronous offline state 510, to the locked state 514, or to the deleted state 516. From the locked state 514, the WFM system may be placed in the online state 508, the asynchronous offline state 510, or the deleted state 516.
Referring now to
The mass storage device 610 is connected to the CPU 602 through a mass storage controller (not shown) connected to the bus 604. The mass storage device 610 and its associated computer-readable media provide non-volatile storage for the computer 600. Although the description of computer-readable media contained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or CD-ROM drive, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer 600.
By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. For example, computer-readable media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer 600.
According to various embodiments, the computer 600 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to remote computers through a network such as the network 108. The computer 600 may connect to the network 108 through a network interface unit 606 connected to the bus 604. It should be appreciated that the network interface unit 606 may also be utilized to connect to other types of networks and remote computer systems. The computer 600 may also include an input/output controller 612 for receiving and processing input from a number of other devices, including a keyboard, mouse, or electronic stylus (not shown in
As mentioned briefly above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored in the mass storage device 610 and RAM 614 of the computer 600, including an operating system suitable or controlling the operation of a networked desktop, laptop, or server computer. The mass storage device 610 and RAM 614 may also store one or more program modules. In particular, the mass storage device 610 and the RAM 614 may store the business modeler 232, the business process definition 234, the service broker queues 214, and the administrative console application program 230, each of which has been described above with reference to
Based on the foregoing, it should be appreciated that technologies for providing a scalable WFM system are provided herein. Although the subject matter presented herein has been described in language specific to computer structural features, methodological acts, and computer readable media, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features, acts, or media described herein. Rather, the specific features, acts and mediums are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
The subject matter described above is provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed as limiting. Various modifications and changes may be made to the subject matter described herein without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
