Process Aware Mobile Systems. Applied to mobile-phone based data collection

<p>The quest to provide computing services to resource-constrained environments in
developing countries is becoming a reality due to the wide use of mobile phones and
penetration of mobile networks. Nowadays, many organisations use Mobile Data
Collection (MDC) tools to enable the collection and digitalisation of data at source,
hence improving quality and increasing efficiencies. Mobile devices and
environments present challenges to computing and application design that need to be
overcome.</p> <p>Beyond mere digitalisation of data, MDC tools need to consider the process-related
aspects of data collection used in paper-based routines expressed through paper trails.
This lack of process-related support hinders the adoption of MDC routines in cases
where great attention is paid to the data collection process. In conventional
information systems, process-related features are implemented using workflows
which may be embedded in an application or separately defined using Workflow
Management Systems. This has led to the development of Process-Aware
Information Systems (PAISs), which are software systems for managing and
executing operational processes involving people, applications, and/or information
sources on the basis of process models. PAISs facilitate the inclusion of processrelated
activities which include the ordering of various tasks undertaken to achieve a
business goal (control flow), the collaboration among various entities, and the
allocation and provision as well the exchange of relevant information necessary for
decision making.</p> <p>The use of mobile devices to carry out tasks is not the most preferable choice due to
hardware limitations. Mobile-based systems should integrate with existing desktopbased
solutions to provide a multiple access platform for work execution. This calls
for integrating workflow systems with generic mobile data collection tools, which
would require modifications in approach, methods and architecture to cater for device and environmental constraints in order to enable the mobile devices to be used
appropriately.</p> <p>This thesis proposes a range of techniques that can be used to enable workflow
support for mobile data collection. The overall goal is to minimise changes in
workflow systems architecture, since these are based on widely agreed standards.
Therefore, we propose an approach for online execution of work, for scenarios where
network connection is readily available, and offline execution of work controlled by a
workflow engine, when the connection is not available. A workflow adapter is
proposed to enable matching of forms for data collection and workflow
specifications. A distributed architecture for offline data collection based on
partitioning a process model into fragments for distributed execution is also proposed.</p> <p>The methods proposed have been implemented with the OpenXdata MDC suite used
for data collection and YAWL workflow management system. The OpenXdata and
YAWL platforms adhere to commonly agreed standards for mobile data collection
and workflow management and thus provide generalizable concepts within the
domain of process-aware mobile data collection. Experiments were carried out on
foundational concepts in order to determine that all relevant workflow-related
constraints are observed. In addition, artefacts developed from the application of
these methods were implemented in real life projects. The findings and results of
these applications were used to validate the methods and frameworks suggested.</p