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Automatic Resource Allocation in Business Processes: A Systematic Literature Survey

Luise Pufahl, Sven Ihde, Fabian Stiehle, Mathias Weske, Ingo Weber

TL;DR

This systematic literature review surveys system-initiated resource allocation approaches for business processes, aggregating 61 journal studies from 1995 to 2023. It analyzes how approaches leverage process models and process execution data, the resource and task attributes they consider, and the solution techniques and evaluation methods employed. Key findings indicate a predominance of 1-to-1, rule-based allocations with process-oriented goals, while data-driven and context-adaptive methods are less common and replicability is often limited. The study proposes leveraging execution data, expanding attribute sets, and conducting comprehensive benchmarking to assess performance impacts, and offers a practitioner-oriented decision flow to guide method selection. Overall, the work identifies clear opportunities for data-rich, adaptable, and reproducible resource allocation research in BPMS contexts.

Abstract

For delivering products or services to their clients, organizations execute manifold business processes. During such execution, upcoming process tasks need to be allocated to internal resources. Resource allocation is a complex decision-making problem with high impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of processes. A wide range of approaches was developed to support research allocation automatically. This systematic literature survey provides an overview of approaches and categorizes them regarding their resource allocation goals and capabilities, their use of models and data, their algorithmic solutions, and their maturity. Rule-based approaches were identified as dominant, but heuristics and learning approaches also play a relevant role.

Automatic Resource Allocation in Business Processes: A Systematic Literature Survey

TL;DR

This systematic literature review surveys system-initiated resource allocation approaches for business processes, aggregating 61 journal studies from 1995 to 2023. It analyzes how approaches leverage process models and process execution data, the resource and task attributes they consider, and the solution techniques and evaluation methods employed. Key findings indicate a predominance of 1-to-1, rule-based allocations with process-oriented goals, while data-driven and context-adaptive methods are less common and replicability is often limited. The study proposes leveraging execution data, expanding attribute sets, and conducting comprehensive benchmarking to assess performance impacts, and offers a practitioner-oriented decision flow to guide method selection. Overall, the work identifies clear opportunities for data-rich, adaptable, and reproducible resource allocation research in BPMS contexts.

Abstract

For delivering products or services to their clients, organizations execute manifold business processes. During such execution, upcoming process tasks need to be allocated to internal resources. Resource allocation is a complex decision-making problem with high impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of processes. A wide range of approaches was developed to support research allocation automatically. This systematic literature survey provides an overview of approaches and categorizes them regarding their resource allocation goals and capabilities, their use of models and data, their algorithmic solutions, and their maturity. Rule-based approaches were identified as dominant, but heuristics and learning approaches also play a relevant role.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 43 sections, 4 equations, 10 figures, 9 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Business Process
  4. Process model.
  5. Process and activity instances.
  6. Process performance.
  7. Process execution and data.
  8. Resources and their Allocation in Business Processes
  9. Resource allocation.
  10. Realization of a resource allocation.
  11. Resource allocation specification.
  12. Solution Quality.
  13. Related Work
  14. Research Method
  15. Research Questions
  16. ...and 28 more sections

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: Laboratory process of a hospital given as BPMN process diagram, with resource information in activity annotations.
  • Figure 2: Architecture of a BPMS (based on DBLP:books/sp/Weske19), including its task service and task list of resources.
  • Figure 3: An organization with its business processes and resources where tasks resulting from process executions need to be allocated to one or more resources. Note that goals, constraints, etc. may be left unspecified in a given setting.
  • Figure 4: Search process and the number of studies as result of the difference steps, including the searches in 2019 and 2023indicated by the $+$.
  • Figure 5: Resulting studies categorized by the originating country (corresponding author and the published year). Countries with one publication each are shown as "Other". Numbers for 2023 are not comparable to earlier years due to the timing of the search.
  • ...and 5 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (4)

  • Definition 1: Resource
  • Definition 2: Resource Allocation
  • Definition 3: Resource Allocation Specification
  • Definition 4: Solution and Solution Quality