Calculation of delay times for workflows with fixed-date constraints

Workflow participants are faced with the problem to select one out many work items in their worklist. The decision to execute one specific work item implicitly postpones the execution of all other items. This may lead to disproportionately increased execution durations of the associated workflows, especially if fixed-date constraints are defined on succeeding tasks. In this paper, we show how to utilize a workflows control structure augmented with information about timing behavior to calculate what delay to expect when the execution of a work item is postponed to certain dates. This information can be used to assist the participant in order to increase the workflow throughput and avoid time-related escalations.