IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/infosf/v14y2012i3d10.1007_s10796-011-9301-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ensuring reliability in B2B services: Fault tolerant inter-organizational workflows

Author

Listed:
  • Haluk Demirkan

    (Arizona State University)

  • Sagnika Sen

    (Pennsylvania State University)

  • Michael Goul

    (Arizona State University)

  • Jason Nichols

    (Oklahoma State University)

Abstract

In the age of Business-to-Business (B2B) collaboration, ensuring reliability of workflows underlying inter-organizational business processes is of significant importance. There are, however, quite a few challenges towards achieving seamless operation. Such challenges arise from heterogeneity in infrastructure and coordination mechanism at participant organizations, as well as time and cost associated with recovery from failure. Our research presents foundations for a reliable scheme for recovery from failure of workflow processes spanning through multiple business entities. First, a system model is adapted from the mobile computing literature that serves to establish the requirements to be enforced by each participating organization. In our model, we adopt the Maximal Sequence Path (MSP) approach from Yoo et al. (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 2132:222–236, 2001), as a means of decomposing workflows into mobile agent-driven processes that communicate via web services at each organization. This decomposition ensures defining logical points within the dynamics of a workflow instance for locating accurate and consistent states of the system for recovery in case of a failure. Then, a set of algorithms for various business scenarios are developed and presented as practical solutions. These algorithms are shown to create checkpoints such that the system is always in a globally consistent state. As such, these algorithms constitute a set of standards that can be incorporated in business process management suites that support reliable inter-organizational collaboration.

Suggested Citation

  • Haluk Demirkan & Sagnika Sen & Michael Goul & Jason Nichols, 2012. "Ensuring reliability in B2B services: Fault tolerant inter-organizational workflows," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 765-788, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:14:y:2012:i:3:d:10.1007_s10796-011-9301-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10796-011-9301-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10796-011-9301-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10796-011-9301-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amit Basu & Robert W. Blanning, 2000. "A Formal Approach to Workflow Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 17-36, March.
    2. Akhil Kumar & J. Leon Zhao, 1999. "Dynamic Routing and Operational Controls in Workflow Management Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 253-272, February.
    3. Paolo Dini & Gabriella Lombardo & Robin Mansell & Amir Reza Razavi & Sotiris Moschoyiannis & Paul Krause & Andrea Nicolai & Lorena Rivera León, 2008. "Beyond interoperability to digital ecosystems: regional innovation and socio-economic development led by SMEs," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(3), pages 410-426.
    4. Edward A. Stohr & J. Leon Zhao, 2001. "Workflow Automation: Overview and Research Issues," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 281-296, September.
    5. Dini, Paolo & Lombardo, Gabriella & Mansell, Robin & Razavi, Amir Reza & Moschoyiannis, Sotiris & Krause, Paul & Nicolai, Andrea & Rivera León, Lorena, 2008. "Beyond interoperability to digital ecosystems: regional innovation and socio-economic development led by SMEs," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20680, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. N.C. Narendra, 2004. "Flexible Support and Management of Adaptive Workflow Processes," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 247-262, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hui Huang & Xueguang Chen & Zhiwu Wang, 2015. "Failure recovery in distributed model composition with intelligent assistance," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 673-689, June.
    2. Chulhwan Chris Bang, 2015. "Information systems frontiers: Keyword analysis and classification," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 217-237, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sherry X. Sun & J. Leon Zhao & Jay F. Nunamaker & Olivia R. Liu Sheng, 2006. "Formulating the Data-Flow Perspective for Business Process Management," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 374-391, December.
    2. T. S. Raghu & B. Jayaraman & H. R. Rao, 2004. "Toward an Integration of Agent- and Activity-Centric Approaches in Organizational Process Modeling: Incorporating Incentive Mechanisms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 316-335, December.
    3. Sagnika Sen & T. S. Raghu, 2013. "Interdependencies in IT Infrastructure Services: Analyzing Service Processes for Optimal Incentive Design," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 822-841, September.
    4. Muhammad Haseeb & Marcin Lis & Ilham Haouas & Leonardus WW Mihardjo, 2019. "The Mediating Role of Business Strategies between Management Control Systems Package and Firms Stability: Evidence from SMEs in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Lucia Bazzucchi, 2012. "Nuovi strumenti di sviluppo locale: l’effetto delle infrastrutture digitali sulla creazione di lavoro autonomo. Analisi di un caso applicato nello stato di New York," Working Papers 1208, c.MET-05 - Centro Interuniversitario di Economia Applicata alle Politiche per L'industria, lo Sviluppo locale e l'Internazionalizzazione.
    6. Noyan Ilk & J. Leon Zhao & Paulo Goes & Paul Hofmann, 2011. "Semantic enrichment process: An approach to software component reuse in modernizing enterprise systems," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 359-370, July.
    7. Amit Basu & Akhil Kumar, 2002. "Research Commentary: Workflow Management Issues in e-Business," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, March.
    8. Usai, A. & Fiano, F. & Messeni Petruzzelli, A. & Paoloni, P. & Farina Briamonte, M. & Orlando, B., 2021. "Unveiling the impact of the adoption of digital technologies on firms’ innovation performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 327-336.
    9. Amit Basu & Robert W. Blanning, 2003. "Synthesis and Decomposition of Processes in Organizations," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 337-355, December.
    10. Paolo Dini & Mehita Iqani & Robin Mansell, 2011. "The (im)possibility of interdisciplinarity: lessons from constructing a theoretical framework for digital ecosystems," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29152, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Daniel D. Zeng & J. Leon Zhao, 2005. "Effective Role Resolution in Workflow Management," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 374-387, August.
    12. Gunwoo Kim & Yongmoo Suh, 2011. "Semantic business process space for intelligent management of sales order business processes," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 515-542, September.
    13. Papamichail, K. N. & Robertson, I., 2005. "Integrating decision making and regulation in the management control process," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 319-332, August.
    14. Piotr Senkus & Waldemar Glabiszewski & Aneta Wysokinska-Senkus & Angelika Panka, 2021. "Process Definitions - Critical Literature Review," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 241-255.
    15. Therani Madhusudan, 2007. "A web services framework for distributed model management," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 9-27, March.
    16. Luning Liu & Jingrui Ju & Yuqiang Feng, 2017. "An extensible framework for collaborative e-governance platform workflow modeling using data flow analysis," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 415-437, July.
    17. Yair Wand & Ron Weber, 2002. "Research Commentary: Information Systems and Conceptual Modeling—A Research Agenda," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 363-376, December.
    18. Devaki Rau & Thorvald Haerem, 2010. "Applying an organizational learning perspective to new technology deployment by technological gatekeepers: A theoretical model and key issues for future research," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 287-297, July.
    19. Seung-Hyun Rhee & Hyerim Bae & Yongsun Choi, 2007. "Enhancing the efficiency of supply chain processes through web services," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 103-118, March.
    20. Amit V. Deokar & Omar F. El-Gayar, 2011. "Decision-enabled dynamic process management for networked enterprises," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 655-668, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:14:y:2012:i:3:d:10.1007_s10796-011-9301-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.