Open source workflow systems for the development of complex computational experiments

Abstract

Today scientists are working in e-Science environments and carry out in silico experiments. A powerful approach, with proven capabilities to facilitate the design process of computational experiments is based on Scientific Workflows, which are receiving considerable interest in recent years. This thesis thoroughly reviews the Scientific Workflows Management Systems field and investigates in detail popular open source workflow systems from a scientific applicability perspective. Moreover, a complex computational experiment from the life sciences field is implemented using current workflow technology in order to better assess their strengths and weaknesses. Emphasis is placed on features which make these systems attractive for scientific use, e.g. user friendliness, use of distributed resources, reusability, provenance, collaboration, data integration, etc. Our conclusions indicate that although Scientific Workflow Management Systems have open issues, discussed in detail in the context of this thesis, their strong momentum clearly suggests that is only a matter of time before they are adopted by even more scientific fields.