Monitoring Workflows Execution with ECA Rules

A fundamental requirement for modern large-scale distributed applications is the need to quickly adapt to the fast variations in their operational environment. In SOA the need for adaptation influences design, enactment and execution of service compositions (workflows). To maintain a high quality standard and to support continuous improvements of workflows, the quality of intermediate steps has to be assessed during execution and, if needed, interventions have to be performed at the same time. The key concept is to avoid problems, anticipating the detection of their causes. We propose a monitoring system based on the definition of general management policies that are translated in management rules using an event-driven approach. Rules are employed to react to unexpected events, malfunctions, errors or violations of constraints with the objective of dynamically adapting the process in order to overcome the problems still maintaining a high-quality delivery