An architecture modelling of a workflow management system

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of a workflow management system by which one can determine a work process at runtime. Our workflow management system consists of a build-time part and a run-time part. The build-time part employs a process definition model that can support various types of work processes. A process definition is described in XML and converted to objects at runtime. In order to extend the function of activity, such as condition checking and invoked applications, we allow inserting real Java code in XML process definition. The core of run-time part is a workflow engine that schedules and operates tasks of a work process according to a given process definition. Activities and transitions are designed as objects that have various execution modes, including simple manual or automatic modes. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.