Enhancing workflow systems resiliency by using delegation and priority concepts

Enforcing dynamic access control constraints in workflow management systems (WFMS) is a very important requirement with regard to security issues. However, respecting those constraints may prohibit the completion of a workflow instance in the case of the lack of authorized users. Such situation is known in the literature as a WSP (Workflow Satisfiability Problem). The ability of a WFMS to use different methods to bypass a WSP situation is often seen as a resiliency property. In this work, we propose a new approach that aims to enhance the resiliency of a WFMS while meeting -at run time-the main workflow dynamic access control requirements. In fact, by using both delegation and priority concepts it is possible to find a user which is as suitable as possible to perform the current task instance with lesser security risks.