Dependency Based Coordination for Consistent Solutions in Distributed Work

Many organizational problems can be decomposed intonearly independent subproblems the solution of whichis the responsibility of independent agents. In this kindof work, which we call distributed work, the problemsare only nearly independent since dependencies existbetween the commitments required from each agent.As a consequence of these dependencies, the coordinationproblem becomes one of maintaining a consistentglobal solution in the face of the possibly conflictingactivities of each agent. We define a normative modelfor coordination protocols that indicates the formal requirementsfor maintaining a globally consistent solution.The model identifies several properties that theprotocol must enforce, namely serializability, atomicity,completeness, and soundness. We show that theseproperties are desirable in coordination protocols fordistributed work problems.