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The NExT Process Workbench:Towards the Support of Dynamic Semantic

Web ProcessesAbraham Bernstein, Michael Dänzer

December 4, 2006

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es Motivation

=?

?

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es The process life cycle

Creation Phase

Process Composition• Choreography of atomic services • Processes may be complex and long-running• Processes move along the Specificity Frontier

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es 1. The creation phase

• Processes evolve rapidly• Relevant information may be unknown before execution

Main Problem: The Specifity Frontier [Bernstein2000]

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es The process life cycle II

Creation Phase Enactment Phase

1

Process Execution• Find the optimal realization for each

atomic service (Orchestration)• User Integration for semi-automatic

executions• Record an execution trail

Adaptation Phase

2 3

Runtime adaptations• Exceptions or events cause

execution interruptions • Consistency preservation (process

and its execution trail)• Re-setting correct resumption point

Publication Phase

4

Documentation• Replication requires formal process

descriptions • Evidence for correct implementation

and execution of process• Useful for know-how exchange

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es The Problems• Boring and time-consuming standard tasks

• Manual Data Transformation and Copying• Manual Execution of fix, non-changeable tasks

• Too little assistance for creative tasks• Increase solution space• Guidance for unexperienced user

• Processes in Life Sciences• Complex • Long-running• Change their specifity (Specificity frontier)

• Tool landscape is heterogeneous• Interfaces are not designed for interoperation • Set of available tools is huge

• Lack of formal models hinder knowledge exchange

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es Ergo – The Requirements

•Ʀ1 – Support users throughout the process choreography and orchestration

•Ʀ2 – Support partial executions•Ʀ3 – Integrate deductive AI planners

to provide alternatives •Ʀ4 – Incorporate a Case Base and a

Case Based Reasoner •Ʀ5 – Support semi-automated data

meditation

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es Operationalization

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es Knowledge Base• Process Library

• Atomic abstract work tasks Ʀ1• Loose coupling to realization Ʀ1• Formal descriptions Ʀ3

• Data Entity Library• All data entities used in IOPE Ʀ1 Formal descriptions Ʀ3 Information about data/object types Ʀ5

• Case Base Complete cases including execution trails Ʀ4

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es Execution SystemSet up a permanent feedback loop between system and user (Mixed-Iniative Planning)

• Choreography: • From suggestions to the generation of full plans Ʀ1• Support for data mediation Ʀ5

• Orchestration: • Suggestions for most optimal realization Ʀ1

• Exception/Event Handling• System helps user to adapt processes at runtime Ʀ2

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es NExT – The Implementation

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es NExT – The Implementation

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es NExT – The Implementation

Meta-Model

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es NExT – The Implementation II

Architecture

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es Motivation - Once more

?

=?

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es Related Work

Name Ʀ1 Ʀ2 Ʀ3 Ʀ4 Ʀ5Taverna + ≈ - - +Kepler + ≈ - - -Pegasus + - + - +Web Service Composer + - + - -WSMX + - - - +• Ʀ1 – Support users throughout the process choreography and orchestration• Ʀ2 – Support partial executions• Ʀ3 – Integrate deductive AI planners to provide alternatives • Ʀ4 – Incorporate a Case Base and a Case Based Reasoner • Ʀ5 – Support semi-automated data meditation

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es Conclusions• User Integration is the key for our approach

• Focus on creative tasks• Control over the whole process life cycle• Permanent feedback loop

• 5 Requirements•Ʀ1 - User assistance whereever possible•Ʀ2 – Support partial execution•Ʀ3 – Integration of AI planners•Ʀ4 – Integration of Case-Based Reasoning•Ʀ5 – (Semi-)automated data mediation

• NExT – the prototype system

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es Future Work• Extend planning and reasoning

facilities• Integration of exception and event

mechanisms in OWL-S• UI integration of tools used in the

realization• Intuitive UI facilities to ease use • Deploy NExT in a life science

environment• ...

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es Questions / Discussion

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es ReferencesPlanner for Web Service Composition• Klusch, Gerber, Schmidt: Semantic Web Service Composition Planning with

OWLS-XPLAN. 1st International AAAI Fall Symposium on Agents and the Semantic Web

• McIlraith, Son: Adapting GOLOG for Composition of Semantic Web Services, KR2002

• Ponnekanti, Fox: A Developer Toolkit for Web Service Composition, WWW2002• Sheshagiri, desJardins, Finin: A Planner for Composing Service described in

DAML-S, ICAPS 2003• Sirin, Parsia, Wu, Hendler, Nau: HTN Planning for Web Service Composition

using SHOP2, AAAI Spring Symposium on Semantic Web Services 2004

Web Service Composition • Au, Kuter, Nau: Web Service Composition with volatile information, ISWC 2005• Kuter, Sirin, Parsia, Nau, Hendler: Information Gathering During Planning for

Web Service Composition, Journal of Web Semantics, 3(2) 2005• Sirin, Parsia, Hendler: Composition-Driven Filtering and Selection of Semantic

Web Services

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es ReferencesGeneral Approach• Bernstein: How Can Cooperative Work Tools Support Dynamic Group

Processes, CSCW 2000• Veloso, Mulvehill, Cox: Rationale Supported Mixed-Initiative Case-Based

Planning, IAAI-97