| Article ID: | iaor20171564 |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Issue: | 5 |
| Start Page Number: | 993 |
| End Page Number: | 1022 |
| Publication Date: | Sep 2017 |
| Journal: | International Transactions in Operational Research |
| Authors: | Hirsch Michael J, Ortiz-Pea Hctor |
| Keywords: | information, networks, design, combinatorial optimization, programming: mathematical, programming: nonlinear, heuristics |
Workflow management systems allow for visibility, control, and automation of many business processes. Recently, nonbusiness domains have taken an interest in the management of workflows, and the optimal assignment and scheduling of workflow tasks to users across a network. This research aims at developing a rigorous mathematical programming formulation of the workflow optimization problem. The resulting formulation is nonlinear, but a linearized version is produced. Three heuristics are developed to find solutions efficiently. Computational experiments are presented and analyzed, comparing solutions to the original linearized formulation with the three heuristics.