Why State Machine Workflows

re: Why State Machine Workflows

CG — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 04:57:51 GMT

Good Article

First of all, it is good that finally someone is talking about State Machine based Processes. Over the last couple of years a lot of my work has been in the B2B Enterprise BPM space with a State Machine based process model as the center piece. Most Workflow models are "sequential" in nature and I was always left wondering if the approach I have been taking was wrong.

Apart from the Flexibility, Visibility and Control aspects of State Machine based Workflow model here are some additional aspects -

1. One perspective is that State Machine based models are good for representing High Level processes and a "Sequential" based model is good for detailed aspects.
* Example is a Purchase Order / Shipment Management process where the High Level process represents an Order's Lifecycle from New to Close ( good for a Business Analyst since thats what he is looking for ). A Sequential model could detail all the steps which happen when the Order is being accepted by the Supplier.
2. A State Machine model clearly distinguishes between the "end state" after an Event has happened - which is the State and the fact that a "sequenced" list of things need to be done when the Action happens.This makes it similar to how one would design on paper.
3. State Machines fit very well in the Human to System Workflow space - since humans are largely looking at "Current Status" and " What can I do next" which is very much what a State Machine Process Model provides. Here is a good article ( from the J2EE world ) on the State Machine vs Message based WFMS.

http://www.theserverside.com/articles/article.tss?l=Workflow

re: Why State Machine Workflows

DC — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 05:11:01 GMT

When is workflow scheduled to work with VS 2005 RC?

re: Why State Machine Workflows

Ariel Schapiro — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:22:00 GMT

Nice Article!!!

About the first comment, when you say "State Machine based models are good for representing High Level processes and a 'Sequential' based model is good for detailed aspects"; maybe thats related to the fact that in Sequential Workflows, the workflow controlls the sequence, while in state machine workflows, users controll the sequence. I Have posted ideas sumarized ideas like this here: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel/archive/2005/10/27/What_style_of_Workflow_should_I_use.aspx

Is logic to say that users operate in high level processes and they have its control, but if you go to detail aspects of the business logic, you have the machine processing it for you.

:)

Wei Shi — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 11:46:34 GMT

In the sentence "and any situation of the *ordinary* was dealt outside the domain of the process", should 'ordinary' be 'unordinary'?

re: Why State Machine Workflows

Sundeep Raina — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 13:17:04 GMT

This is the very nice link and had got enough idea about the working in workflow
i have one query ? can i ask ?

re: Why State Machine Workflows

Vidya N — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:29:09 GMT

Very good article in easy to understand words without using any technology or tool 's perspective

re: Why State Machine Workflows

Taklikar AH — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:47:25 GMT

Very good article that helps understanding the usage of the State Machine Workflows. Thanks.

Best practices in Workflow Design - Part 2

Living .NET... — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:52:20 GMT

Naming convention in Workflows Workflow activities should be named appropriately. As much as possible

Best practices in Workflow Design - Part 2

Living .NET... — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:00:41 GMT

Naming convention in Workflows Workflow activities should be named appropriately. As much as possible

re: Why State Machine Workflows

Venkatesh T — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:08:57 GMT

hi Pravin

i have created the sample state machine workflow, with two states. the first state has state initialization and event driven activity, and the second state has state initialization. when start the workflow, it works fine at the initial state. when i raise a event using the handle external event activity it doesn't move to next state.

I know that i have made a mistake, but couldn't able to trace. could you help me.

Thanks in advance

Venkatesh

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re: Why State Machine Workflows

Hemant — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:53:54 GMT

Problem History

My Workflow pattern is like

CodeActivity 1> delayActivity(10) hours > codeActivity2

I have set SqlWorkflowPersistenceService UnloadOnIdel = True;

I am using Asp.net As hosting Application for Workflow.

I am using ManualWorkflowScheduling Service for scheduling Workflow instance.

Problem definition

Now after execution of activity CodeActivity1 of above said Workflow, delayActivity fires and my Workflow Instance get persisted into Database(as per expectation).

After 10 hours I need to reload my Workflow instance.

Approach I am Thinking

What should I do.

Do I need to write a window service that polls database after every 1 second and gets Workflow instance of expired timer and reload that instance.

Or we have any alternative solution.

Please suggest.