Deadline-based escalation in process-aware information systems

Decision making in process-aware information systems involves build-time and run-time decisions. At build-time, idealized process models are designed based on the organization's objectives, infrastructure, context, constraints, etc. At run-time, this idealized view is often broken. In particular, process models generally assume that planned activities happen within a certain period. When such assumptions are not fulfilled, users must make decisions regarding alternative arrangements to achieve the goal of completing the process within its expected time frame or to minimize tardiness. We refer to the required decisions as escalations. This paper proposes a framework for escalations that draws on established principles from the workflow management field. The paper identifies and classifies a number of escalation mechanisms such as changing the routing of work, changing the work distribution or changing the requirements with respect to available data. A case study and a simulation experiment are used to illustrate and evaluate these mechanisms.