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1.4. DOCUMENTATION
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Wil van der Aalst has written much about the application of Petri nets to workflow, see e.g. [1]. The subclass
of Petri nets introduced by him, Workflow-nets, is a predecessor of YAWL. The textbook that he wrote
together with Kees van Hee is highly recommended reading [4].
A recent textbook on Business Process Management (BPM), which covers the original control-flow patterns
and also YAWL, was written by Mathias Weske [24]. This textbook also covers other approaches, such as
the modelling standard BPMN (note that the BPMN2YAWL tool can convert these specifications to YAWL).
On the YAWL web site (yawlfoundation.org) it can be seen how the original control-flow patterns can
be realised in YAWL (follow the link on Resources and then click ‘patterns’). For control-flow patterns in
newYAWL the reader can consult appendix A.1 of Nick Russell’s PhD thesis [22].
If you would like to know more about how verification of YAWL specifications really works, we refer you
to [23] and to [25]. This work forms the theoretical basis of how the verification mechanisms are realised in
the YAWL editor.
In-depth discussion of YAWL’s exception handling framework from a conceptual point of view can be found
in [22, 18] and from an implementation aspect in [7, 8]. YAWL’s worklet approach to dealing with on-the-fly
changes to workflows is discussed in [7, 9].
The reader that is interested in declarative specification of workflow is referred to [15]. On the Declare web
site, declare.sf.net, the Declare service for YAWL can be downloaded. Further documentation about
this approach can also be found there.
YAWL has a close link to the Process Mining environment ProM [3], www.processmining.org. This link
is for example exploited in [17] to provide simulation support for YAWL. There exists support for exporting
YAWL logs to ProM which can subsequently be analysed by one of the many mining plug-ins available in
this environment.
Alternative ways of presenting work lists have been addressed in [10]. In this framework users can choose
a map (not just a geographical map, but also e.g. a timeline or a YAWL specification) and work items can be
positioned on this map and be shown in a colour that reflects their level of urgency (a context-specific notion
which can be defined for the user). It is expected that this work becomes part of the YAWL distribution in
the near future.
Finally, a textbook on YAWL, called Modern Business Process Automation: YAWL and its Support Environment
has been published by Springer (2010; ISBN: 978-3-642-03120-5).