A Conceptual Framework for Agent Oriented and Role Based Workflow Modelling

This paper explores an innovative conceptual framework for agentoriented and role based workflow modeling. We view a business process as a collection of autonomous, problem solving agents which interact with others when they have interdependencies. And we model a workflow as a set of relating roles. Roles are defined in term of goals, qualifications, obligations,permissions, protocols, etc. We adopt protocols to govern the interactionsamong roles. Roles are assigned to agents based on the evaluation ofqualification and capabilities. Once a role is assigned to an agent, the agentinherits the obligations and permissions specified in that role. Coordination of workflow is achieved by communication between agents. Moreover, the journal article Internet peer review process is considered as a case study.