WOAL: A Tool to Orchestrate Workflow Using An Abstraction Layer

Abstract

The development of systems with complex business processes needs developers who can orchestrate the system workflow accurately. Orchestrating workflow normally requires someone who has the knowledge in programming. This is because they are the ones who are able to directly link the workflow to the programming framework. Contrary to the normal practise, the business people is actually the best person to design the workflow as they are experts in their domain and therefore, can design complex workflow more accurately. However, business people have difficulty in orchestrating workflows using programming languages without having to go through a long learning process. Hence, the objective of Workflow Orchestration Abstraction Layer (WOAL) is to allow business people to design workflow on their own using an easy-to-understand language. They will be able to produce workflow diagrams for verification and workflow's automator for system development. This paper presents the architecture of WOAL, including the design of domain-specific language (DSL), lexer and parser. © 2019 IEEE.