Distributed Workflow Enactment: an Agent-based Framework

This paper describes the design and the implementation of an Agent-based Workflow Enactment Framework (AWEF) which can be instantiated on the basis of a workflow schema for obtaining a specific workflow enactment engine. A workflow engine therefore is a MAS capable of managing instances of the workflow schema used for the instantiation of AWEF. Each MAS adopts a hierarchical organizational structure composed by an EnacterAgent, which is responsible of the activation and monitoring of the workflow, one or more ManagerAgents, which are responsible of the execution and control of the workflow/subworkflows according to a parent/child model, and one or more TaskAgents, which are responsible of the execution of internal tasks and/or of the wrapping of external tasks or services. The hierarchical distribution of the workflow execution control between the ManagerAgents and the distribution of the computation among the TaskAgents allow for more flexible, efficient, and robust enactment services.