Conflict detection and resolution for workflows constrained by resources and non-determined durations

The correctness of a workflow specification is critical for the automation of business processes. Therefore, errors in the specification should be detected and corrected at build-time. In this paper, we present a conflict verification and resolution approach for a kind of workflow constrained by resources and non-determined duration based on Petri net. In this kind of workflow, there are two timing functions for each activity to present the minimum and maximum duration of each activity, and the implementations of some activities require resources. Based on the Petri net model obtained, the earliest time to start each activity can be calculated and the key activities influencing the implementation of the workflow can be determined, with which the resource consistency between activities can be verified. Key-activity and waiting-short priority strategies are adopted to remove the resource conflicts between activities, which can ensure that most of the subsequent activities start as early as possible and that the whole workflow be finished in a shorter time. Through experiments, it is proved that the proposed removal strategy for resource conflicts is better than other strategies.