DOCSLIB.ORG

How to Describe Workflow Information Systems to Support Business Process

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How to Describe Workflow Information Systems to Support Business Process How to Describe Workflow Information Systems to Support Business Process Josefina Guerrero García, Jean Vanderdonckt, Christophe Lemaige, Juan M. González Calleros 1Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain School of Management Place des Doyens, 1 – B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) Abstract ticipant to another for action, according to a set of pro- cedural rules” [26]. Workflow Information Systems (WIS) cover the application of information technology This paper addresses a methodology for developing to business problems. Its primary characteristic is the the various user interfaces (UI) of a workflow informa- automation of processes involving combinations of tion system (WIS), which are advocated to automate human activities with information technology applica- business processes, following a model-centric ap- tions. Owing to the fact that the users of a IS interact proach based on the requirements and processes of the with it through its user interfaces (UIs) in the pursuit organization. The methodology applies to: 1) integrate of organizational goals, flexibility in creating them is human and machines based activities, in particular therefore important. We will explore a systematic way those involving interaction with IT applications and to define UIs for a WIS. The workflow model defines tools, 2) to identify how tasks are structured, who per- what processes and tasks need to be fulfilled and their form them, what their relative order is, how they are possible ordering; hence the workflow model is a offered or assigned, and how tasks are being tracked. ‘framework’ for creating task model, hence the task For this purpose, workflow is recursively decomposed model is suitable for developing UIs. into processes which are in turn decomposed into A short introduction to task and workflow modeling is tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose struc- given in section 2, and a modeling language is pro- ture, ordering, and connection with the domain model vided. Section 3 presents the underlying conceptual allows the automated generation of corresponding UIs model of the framework. Section 4 describes our ap- in a transformational approach. proach to develop UIs. Section 5 provides a case study. Finally, in section 6 we conclude and give some notes 1. Introduction on future work. Inside organizations, business processes are performed to ensure that work progress towards accomplishment 2. State of the art of goals. The organization of work, both within and The introduction of Workflow Information Systems in between companies, is becoming more and more com- organizations has emerged as a major advantage to plicated. This is why (computerized) information sys- provide them with a competitive advantage, as a way tems have been developed to support the management to trim cost, to automate process, to reduce time. Im- of processes and their coordination. Today Information plemented properly, workflow applications enable Systems (IS) are part of the organizations with the mis- companies to reengineer and streamline business proc- sion of: 1) improving organizational performance and esses; for this reason, the interest in workflow systems individual quality work life and 2) providing interna- has grown dramatically over the last years. A number tional leadership and education in the successful man- of approaches have been used to model business proc- agement and use of information technology to achieve esses and workflows; those include notations, lan- business objectives [9]. An information system creates guages, and software tools. As notations there are Petri value for the organization as an organizational and Nets [20, 21], Statecharts Diagrams [25, 28], Business management solution to challenges posed by the envi- Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) [13, 27], and ronment. Nevertheless, they have not had the impact UML Activity Diagrams [4]. Currently, several models expected on the improvement to perform the tasks on and design methods support the development of com- the organizations. Workflow is an excellent way to plex workflow-based applications providing notations meet this need. Defined as “the automation of a busi- for describing rich business process including tool sup- ness process, in whole or part, during which docu- port for designing, for instance: The Progression ments, information or tasks are passed from one par- Model [18], YAWL [23], Microsoft Windows Work- flow Foundation (WWF) [5], WebSphere® MQ Work- Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)[1], Task Knowl- flow (IBM) [7], WIDE [3], ARIS [17] among others. edge Structure (TKS) [8], GroupWare Task Analysis Due to the large amount of existing workflow prod- (GTA) [24], and ConcurTaskTrees (CTT)[14] which ucts, especially all the commercial software that are all support designers by hierarchically decomposing equipped today with many different capabilities, we tasks, defining objects manipulated and the role re- came to a point where it is very difficult to compare sponsible for performing the task. The vast number of these capabilities on a common scheme. For this pur- task modeling notations results in semantic and syntac- pose, a collection of workflow patterns has been iden- tic differences which are discussed in [11]. tified that provide the basis for an in-depth comparison Task models play an important role in UI design be- of commercially available workflow systems. Control- cause they support the systematic representation of the flow patterns [22] identified useful basic routing con- user activity as opposed to the system activity. structs such as sequence, parallel split, synchroniza- Model-based user interface design is intended to assist tion, exclusive choice. From a data perspective, there is in designing user interfaces with a more formal com- a series of characteristics that occur repeatedly in dif- puter supported methodology; there are solutions to ferent workflow modeling paradigms. Workflow data developing UI that are based in eXtensible Mark-up patterns [15] are aimed at capturing the various ways Language (XML). UsiXML [10, 19] is a XML- in which data is represented and used in workflows. compliant markup language capturing the essence of Workflow resource patterns [16] correspond to the what a UI is or should be independently of physical manner in which tasks are allocated to resources, that characteristics. It has been selected as the User Inter- is any entity that is capable of achieving some work face Description Language (UIDL) to be used in the unit. remainder of this work because of its capabilities of All these approaches for workflow modeling involved extensiveness, availability, central storage of models, in some way the task concept. However none of these and its transformational approach. methods clearly specify the boundaries of a task model and user task which is essential to the development of usable UIs. Examples of task modeling languages are: processModel 1 1 workflow 0..n processOperator 1 1..n 1..n process sequential parallelSplit simpleMerge 1..n 1 synchronization exclusiveChoice multiChoice 0..n organizationalUnit job 0..n 0..n 1..n 1..n 1..n workItem workList 1..n 0..n 1 2..n 1..n logEntry 0..n taskResource task 1 taskModel 1..n 0..n 1..n 1..n 1 1 0..n 1..n taskRelationship userStereotype meansMaterials immaterial 0..n 1 0..1 machine hardwareM software services decomposition temporal 1 0..n agenda agendaItem 1 0..n binaryRelationship unaryRelationship Figure 1 Partial view of the Workflow Model. 3. Conceptual Modeling of Workflow In- 4. How to Generate the User Interfaces formation Systems To develop UIs, we propose a method that is compliant After reviewing the different approaches to model with the Cameleon Reference Framework [2] for de- business process and workflow, we propose a frame- veloping multi-target UIs, which is decomposed in work (Figure 1) that considers the principal compo- four steps (Figure 2): nents to model workflow. The intention is to use this 1) Task and domain modeling (Computing Independ- model as a base to develop UIs. By exploiting task ent Model in MDA): a model is provided for the end model descriptions, different scenarios could be con- user’s task, the domain of activity and, if needed, the ducted. Each scenario represents a particular sequence context of use (user, computing platform, and envi- of actions that can successfully be performed to reach ronment). a goal. Task models do not impose any particular im- 2) Abstract User Interface modeling (Platform Inde- plementation so that user tasks can be better analyzed pendent Model in MDA): this level describes UIs without implementation constraints. This kind of independently of any interaction modality and any analysis is made possible because user tasks are con- implementation. sidered from the point of view of the users need for the 3) Concrete User Interface modeling (Platform Specific application and not how to represent the user activity Model in MDA): this level describes a potential UI with a particular system. after a particular interaction modality has been se- The underlying conceptual model is composed of: lected (e.g., graphical, vocal, multimodal). This step workflow, process, task, and organization models. The is supported by several tools helping designers and workflow model is recursively decomposed into proc- developers to edit, build, or sketch a user interface. esses which are in turn decomposed into tasks. A proc- 4) Final User Interface: this level is reached when the ess model indicates the ordering of processes in time, UI code is produced by interpretation or compiled. space, and resources. Each process gives rise to a proc- As we mention in section 2, UsiXML has been se- ess model structured and ordered with process opera- lected as the UIDL. It describes at a high level of ab- tors. Process operators determine whether the flow of straction the constituting elements of the UI of an ap- work is sequential, parallel split, exclusive choice or plication: widgets, controls, containers, modalities, in- multiple choices, with the corresponding merger op- teraction techniques, etc. UsiXML supports device in- erators, synchronization and simple merge.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server Custom Application Development: Document Workflow Management Project
    Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Custom Application Development: Document Workflow Management Project Author: Eric Charran, Microsoft Corporation Date published: February 2009 Applies to: Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 VSTS Rangers: This content was created in a VSTS Rangers project. “Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System by delivering out-of-band solutions for missing features or guidance. We work closely with members of Microsoft Services and MVP communities to make sure that their solutions address real-world blockers.” Bijan Javidi, VSTS Ranger Lead Summary: This white paper reviews the successful Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) design, construction, and deployment of a custom Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 application to a mid-market enterprise customer. This documentation will serve to educate and familiarize customers who are planning to undertake similar custom Office SharePoint Server 2007 application projects within their own organizations. The guidance and experiences come directly from a real-world field implementation and contain patterns and practices in addition to descriptions of the problem, business challenge, the solution's technical structure, and the staffing model that was used to implement the application. The audience for this document includes customers who are interested in conducting a software development life cycle for a custom application that will be built on the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies platform. This document not only discusses the project's goals and vision from inception, but also follows the project through staffing by identifying successful team models. The solution's physical design and best practice considerations are documented and provide background and context for the presented lessons learned.
    [Show full text]
  • Workflow Definition, Benefits, and Preparation
    4 Country View Road Malvern, PA 19355 800.223.7036 610.647.5930 S www.sct.com Workflow definition, benefits, and preparation An SCT White Paper EWHT-005 (02/03) SCT, Banner, PowerCAMPUS, and the circle P logo are registered trademarks; and the SCT logo, SCT Plus, SCT Matrix, SCT Campus Pipeline, and Luminis are trademarks, of Systems & Computer Technology Corporation or one or more of its wholly owned subsidiaries. All other products and company names referenced herein are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2003 Systems & Computer Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. Workflow (cont.) What is Workflow? Most colleges and universities today practice workflow of some kind, either manually or with software applications. Admitting a student, for example, requires more than one person (and more than one department) to find the prospect, review the application, compile the financial aid package, and send the offer letter. The process of passing information along and responding to it is a type of workflow. However, more often than not, the process grinds to a halt when one of those papers languishes in a participant’s in-box. A software-based workflow management system would speed this process—and hundreds of others like it—and elevate its quality by automating, simplifying, measuring, directing, and managing the flow of information from department to department across the enterprise. There are many different definitions of workflow. For consistency, SCT follows the definition put forth by the respected Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC): The coalition also states that a true workflow management system must have the following criteria: • Define, create, and manage the execution of workflows with software • Run on one or more workflow engines • Interpret the process definition • Interact with workflow participants • Invoke IT tools and applications where required In addition, workflow solutions comprise data, people, tools, and activities.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Workflows April 6, 2020
    Tutorial An Introduction to Workflows April 6, 2020 Sample to Insight QIAGEN Aarhus Silkeborgvej 2 Prismet 8000 Aarhus C Denmark digitalinsights.qiagen.com [email protected] An Introduction to Workflows 2 Tutorial An Introduction to Workflows A workflow consists of a series of connected tools where the output of one tool is used as input for another tool, making it possible to analyze many samples using a standardized pipeline. This tutorial covers: • Setting up a workflow that maps reads to a reference sequence, detects variants in the data relative to the reference, and filters away variants that are also present in a database of common variants • Launching a workflow in batch mode to analyze multiple samples • Workflow management, including creating a workflow installer, for installing the workflow on your own or another CLC Workbench, or on a CLC Server, where all or a selected group of server users could make use of it Steps where action should be taken are numbered. Prerequisites: We recommend using CLC Genomics Workbench 20.0 or higher when working through this tutorial. Some functionality referred to is not available in earlier versions. Download and import data for the tutorial The example data for this tutorial includes two files of sequencing reads and several reference tracks: the human mitochondrial genome from the hg18 build, NC_0O1807 (Genome), corre- sponding CDS and Gene tracks, and a chrMdbSNPCommon track containing the dbSNP common variants for this mitochondrial sequence. 1. Download the example data from http://resources.qiagenbioinformatics.com/ testdata/chrM-tutorial-data.zip. 2. Start the CLC Genomics Workbench.
    [Show full text]
  • A Adapting Scientific Workflow Structures Using Multi-Objective
    A Adapting Scientific Workflow Structures Using Multi-Objective Optimisation Strategies IRFAN HABIB, Centre for Complex Cooperative Systems, FET, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK ASHIQ ANJUM, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Derby, Derby, UK RICHARD MCCLATCHEY, Centre for Complex Cooperative Systems, FET, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK OMER RANA, School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University, UK Scientific workflows have become the primary mechanism for conducting analyses on distributed comput- ing infrastructures such as grids and clouds. In recent years, the focus of optimisation within scientific workflows has primarily been on computational tasks and workflow makespan. However, as workflow-based analysis becomes ever more data intensive, data optimisation is becoming a prime concern. Moreover, scien- tific workflows can scale along several dimensions: (i) number of computational tasks, (ii) heterogeneity of computational resources, and the (iii) size and type (static vs. streamed) of data involved. Adapting workflow structure in response to these scalability challenges remains an important research objective. Understand- ing how a workflow graph can be restructured in an automated manner (through task merge for instance), to address constraints of a particular execution environment is explored in this work, using a multi-objective evolutionary approach. Our approach attempts to adapt the workflow structure to achieve both compute and data optimisation. The question of when to terminate the evolutionary search in order to conserve compu- tations is tackled with a novel termination criterion. The results presented in this paper, demonstrate the feasibility of the termination criterion and demonstrate that significant optimisation can be achieved with a multi-objective approach.
    [Show full text]
  • A Novel Approach for Bioinformatics Workflow Discovery
    (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 5, No. 11, 2014 A Novel Approach for Bioinformatics Workflow Discovery Walaa Nagy Hoda M. O. Mokhtar Information Systems Dept. Information Systems Dept. Faculty of Computers and Information Faculty of Computers and Information Cairo University. Cairo University. Egypt Egypt Abstract—Workflow systems are typical fit for in the explo- more closely to the objective of the research, provides further rative research of bioinformaticians. These systems can help abstraction and reduces the workflow conceptually to a single bioinformaticians to design and run their experiments and to functional operation as follows: automatically capture and store the data generated at runtime. On the other hand, Web services are increasingly used as the construct phylogenetic tree to a reference sequence. preferred method for accessing and processing the information This statement ”Construct phylogenetic tree” subsume the coming from the diverse life science sources. In this work we steps required to generate phylogenetic tree [1] which are: provide an efficient approach for creating bioinformatic workflow Step 1: Choosing an appropriate markers for the phylogenetic for all-service architecture systems (i.e., all system components analysis. are services ). This architecture style simplifies the user inter- action with workflow systems and facilitates both the change of Step 2:Performing multiple sequence alignments. individual components, and the addition of new components to Step 3:Selection of an evolutionary model. adopt to other workflow tasks if required. We finally present Step 4:Phylogenetic tree reconstruction. a case study for the bioinformatics domain to elaborate the Step 5:Evaluation of the phylogenetic tree.
    [Show full text]
  • Design and Implementation of a Workflow Oriented ERP System
    Design and Implementation of a Workflow Oriented ERP System B´alint Moln´ar1 and Zsigmond M´ari´as1,2 1Faculty of Informatics, E¨otv¨os Lor´and University (ELTE), H-1117 Budapest, P´azm´any P´eter s´et´any 1/C., Hungary 2LogiNet Systems Kft. H-1221 Budapest, Vihar u. 5/D., Hungary Keywords: Workflow, ERP Systems, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Document Models, Data Flow. Abstract: Adaptation of enterprise resource planning systems to the frequently changing business environment and busi- ness processes require huge resources. That is why the demand was formulated for a method that enables introducing new features in software systems without any modification in program code. An adaptive ERP system cannot handle business processes and data flow as disjoint components. Therefore the proposed solu- tion is bifocal: an adaptive ERP system with highly integrated data flow and document management. In this article design and programming challenges are shown that had to be met during the development, focusing on topics of effective data storage and queries, workflow control structures and workflow evaluation techniques, document representation and the connection of workflow and data flow. 1 INTRODUCTION operation without any modification in program code would be highly advantageous. State of the art information systems used by organisa- tions in the business sector usually consist of built-in 1.2 The Idea of Workflow based software modules that implement company-specific business logic. As these organisations are constantly Systems facing new challenges, their business processes have to change frequently, therefore modifications of these The proposed workflow oriented ERP system’s capa- software systems are also often needed.
    [Show full text]
  • Business Process Modeling and Workflow Management
    Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Deßloch AG Heterogene Informationssysteme Geb. 36, Raum 329 Tel. 0631/205 3275 [email protected] Chapter 6 – Business Process Modeling and Workflow Management Introduction & Motivation Business (Re-)Engineering Workflow Management Systems WF and Transactions Role of Workflow Technology Applications support business processes and have to ensure compliance with business processes => Application = Business Process + Business Functions Large applications often use special "control programs" to ensure the appropriate/correct sequencing of business functions Changes in how to perform business must be reflected as soon as possible in applications Requires code changes [which part to change?...], recompilation, redistribution of code,... to reflect new business processes What if users of standard applications want to reflect their own processes? very difficult, cumbersome, expensive (service specialists, consultancy) Consequence: Implementation of control programs via workflows Application consists of collection of business processes and collection of business functions (= "usual" programs) Business processes are enacted by workflow system that invoke business functions "appropriately", i.e. according to process model No coding,... to adapt application to changed business process 2 © Prof.Dr.-Ing. Stefan Deßloch Enterprise Information Systems WS 2010/2011 1 Historical Background Electronic document and folder routing in office automation Routing through enterprise's organizational structure Potential
    [Show full text]
  • Workflow Processing Using ERP Objects
    Acta Cybernetica 22 (2015) 183–210. Workflow processing using ERP Objects Attila Selmeci,∗ Tam´as Orosz,† and Istv´an Orosz‡ Abstract Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Systems, and Workflow Manage- ment Systems (WFMS) evolved parallel in the past. The main business drivers for automation came from the ERP world, but the WFMS solutions discovered their own way figuring out the necessity of such applications with- out ERP as well. In our paper we follow only the usage of workflows in ERP systems. The central elements of built-in workflows are the ERP ob- jects, which embed and handle the business data providing real life meaning of business objects as well. The capabilities of built-in workflow systems of such ERP solutions are presented via two market-leaders: SAP and Microsoft Dynamics AX. Both solutions are dealing with ERP objects in sence of the workflow management. We recognized and present the weaknesses and re- strictions of the built-in workflow systems on these two ERP examples. In our paper we describe the results of our analysis of the interoperability of the built-in workflow systems as well and demonstrate the required add-on func- tionalities to provide usable cross-system workflows in such an environment. We also mention the possibility of using a built-in workflow as a full-featured WFMS. Keywords: Workflow, ERP, BAPI, Business Evolution, Business Process Management (BPM) 1 Introduction Today’s World would stop, if ERP systems and other business application would not provide functionalities to manage and report data. In business application systems many business processes are running together, parallel and/or connecting to each other.
    [Show full text]
  • Visualization of Bioinformatics Workflows for Ease of Understanding and Design Activities
    Visualization of Bioinformatics Workflows for Ease of Understanding and Design Activities H. V. Byelas and M. A. Swertz Genomics Coordination Center, Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Keywords: Bioinformatics: Workflow Management System, Life Science Workflows, Workflow Visualization. Abstract: Bioinformatics analyses are growing in size and complexity. They are often described as workflows, with the workflow specifications also becoming more complex due to the diversity of data, tools, and computational resources involved. A number of workflow management systems (WMS) have been developed recently to help bioinformaticians in their workflow design activities. Many of these WMS visualize workflows as graphs, where the nodes are analysis steps and the edges are interactions and constraints between analysis steps. These graphs usually represent a data flow of the analysis. We know that in software visualization, similar graphs are used to show a data flow in software systems. However, the WMS do not use any widely accepted standards for workflow visualization, particularly not in the bioinformatics domain. As a result, workflows are visualized in different ways in different WMS and workflows describing the same analysis look different in different WMS. Furthermore, the visualization techniques used in WMS for bioinformatics are quite limited. Here, we argue that applying some of the visual analytics methods and techniques used in software field, such as UML (unified modelling language) diagrams combined with quality metrics, can help to enhance understanding and sharing of the workflow, and ease workflow analysis and design activities. 1 INTRODUCTION best served by visualizing the structure. Adding attributes such as ”quality” metrics to Software structure has been depicted with design di- this picture helps correlate the various quantita- agrams since the very start of computer program- tive insights with structural and architectural in- ming (Diehl, 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • Based Supply Chain Management System
    Analysis and Implementation of Workflow- based Supply Chain Management System Yan Tu ^and Baowen Sun ^ 1 Information School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, P.R.China,[email protected] 2 Department of Science and Research, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, P.R.China,[email protected] Abstract. Because of lack of abstraction at the stage of requirement analysis, the traditional Supply Chain Management systems are not suitable to dynamic reengineering when business needs change. This paper will combine Workflow Technologies with Supply Chain Management systems (WSCM). By decomposing work into the corresponding tasks and roles and monitoring the sequence of work activities according to a defined set of rules, we can boost efficiency, reduce cost, and optimize performance of business processes management of Supply Chain. 1 Introduction As Internet technologies become commonplace in businesses, an emerging necessary characteristic of purchasing, logistics, and support activities is flexibility. Therefore, supply chain fianctions must operate in an integrated manner in order to opfimize performance. However, the dynamics of the organization and the market make this challenging. In many organizations, it is likely that the sequence of work activities on business process will be changed by customers while in process, and in most cases, these change requests are difficult to manage. In spite of the ubiquitous presence of information technology, the value that the traditional Supply Chain Management (SCM) software creates, and integration of business processes and enterprises, the challenges of implementing these applications do exist. The factors such as incompetent infrastructure, conflicting policies and standards, and changes about the sequence of work activities pose immense pressure for the organizations to move forward.
    [Show full text]
  • A Decentralized and Cooperative Workflow Scheduling Algorithm
    Eighth IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid A Decentralized and Cooperative Workflow Scheduling Algorithm Rajiv Ranjan, Mustafizur Rahman, and Rajkumar Buyya Grid Computing and Distributed Systems (GRIDS) Laboratory Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering The University of Melbourne, Australia {rranjan, mmrahman, raj}@csse.unimelb.edu.au Workflow Workflow Abstract— In the current approaches to workflow scheduling, T1 T1 there is no cooperation between the distributed workflow brokers T2 T3 T2 T3 and as a result, the problem of conflicting schedules occur. To overcome this problem, in this paper, we propose a decentralized T4 T4 T1 R1 T1 R1 Workflow and cooperative workflow scheduling algorithm. The proposed T2 R1 T2 R1 Workflow Workflow Broker 1 approach utilizes a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) coordination space with T3 R2 T3 R2 Broker 2 Broker m T4 R3 T4 R3 respect to coordinating the application schedules among the Grid Query wide distributed workflow brokers. The proposed algorithm is Reply completely decentralized in the sense that there is no central Centralised point of contact in the system, the responsibility of the key GIS functionalities such as resource discovery and scheduling co- ordination are delegated to the P2P coordination space. With Update the implementation of our approach, not only the performance bottlenecks are likely to be eliminated but also efficient scheduling with enhanced scalability and better autonomy for the users are likely to be achieved. We prove the feasibility of our approach through an extensive trace driven simulation study. Resource 1 Resource 2 Resource n I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Existing workflow scheduling approach.
    [Show full text]
  • NGOMICS-WF, a Bioinformatic Workflow Tool for Batch Omics Data Analysis
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/475699; this version posted November 23, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-ND 4.0 International license. NGOMICS-WF, a Bioinformatic Workflow Tool for Batch Omics Data Analysis Weizhong Li* ​ J Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America *To whom correspondence should be addressed, contact [email protected] or [email protected] ​ ​ ​ Abstract In recent years, high throughput next generation omics data have been broadly used in many research fields. However, analyzing omics data is still very challenging, especially for researchers with less experience in bioinformatics, software, and programming. Omics data analysis workflows usually are composed of many processes involving different software tools that demand different compute resources. So, it is often difficult to perform a full workflow in an automated way, despite that many computational tools and resources are available. Here I present NGOMICS-WF, a lightweight workflow tool for batch omics data analysis. This workflow tool has been used in several projects. It can assist researchers to configure and run workflows for various types of omics data on Linux computers or Linux computer clusters. The software package is available from https://github.com/weizhongli/ngomicswf. In addition to the workflow ​ ​ tool, several pre-configured workflows that were tested and published are also available in the package. These pre-configured workflows can be directly used or be used as templates to configure new workflows to analyze metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, RNA-seq and 16S data.
    [Show full text]