Organizational Roles in YAWL Explained

How does YAWL decide who gets which task based on roles like CEO, CFO, or CIO?
This video introduces the organisational distribution pattern and demonstrates how it is implemented in the YAWL workflow management system.

Organisational distribution assigns work items based on positions within an organisational hierarchy rather than individual users or abstract roles alone. Typical examples include positions such as CEO, CFO, CIO, or department heads. The allocation decision is derived from the organisational model, which defines positions, reporting relationships, and group memberships.

The video explains how YAWL uses organisational structures—such as positions and org groups—to route tasks according to hierarchical responsibility. Instead of assigning a task to a named user, the workflow specifies a position. At runtime, YAWL resolves this position to the appropriate user(s) based on the current organisational data.

A visual animation illustrates how work items flow through an organisation depending on hierarchical relationships. The example demonstrates how a task can be routed to the CEO, CFO, or CIO depending on where it is positioned in the organisational model, and how changes in personnel do not require changes to the workflow specification itself.

The tutorial also shows how organisational distribution differs from role-based distribution and capability-based distribution. While role-based distribution targets functional roles and capability-based distribution filters by skills, organisational distribution focuses on structural authority and responsibility within an organisation.

The video concludes with a live demonstration in YAWL, showing how organisational positions are configured and how tasks are allocated dynamically during workflow execution.

This tutorial is part of the YAWL tutorial series. For an introduction to defining organisational structures using positions and org groups, see:
https://youtu.be/A74nVayXkm8

For a general introduction to installing and using the Workflow Management System, see the basic tutorials:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4BZgFsmRzfSEP_8nCqHt3N2X_XzRNen2

Supplementary material, including the YAWL workflow specification used in this tutorial, is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/ahense/YAWL  
(Download via “Code” → “Download ZIP”. The material is located in the folder corresponding to the tutorial number.)

Background reading:
- Resource Patterns overview: http://www.workflowpatterns.com/patterns/resource
- Workflow Patterns book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262029827/workflow-patterns

This is video #60 of the YAWLSeries.