Normalized workflow net (NWF-net): Its definition and properties

Workflow net, based on Petri nets' characteristics, is powerful and used widely. However, the workflow net itself cannot guarantee the soundness for its defined models; and what is more, the coming analysis on the workflow net models are difficult. In this paper, based on the structure of the classical workflow net, it introduces a new kind of net for modeling business processes, named normalized workflow net (NWF-net). NWF-net, which can be represented by a context-free language, can effectively avoid those structure problems occurred in the classical workflow net by removing some possible unnatural patterns. NWF-net satisfies all the required properties needed for workflow process modeling while keeping a strongly modeling capability, and the computational performance analysis, such as the expected completion time, becomes simple.