Integrating light-weight workflow management systems within existing business environments

Abstract

Workflow management systems (WfMSs) support the efficient, largely automated execution of business processes. However, using a WfMS typically requires implementing the application's control flow exclusively by the WfMS. This approach is powerful if the control flow is specified and implemented from scratch, but it has severe drawbacks if a WfMS is to be integrated within environments with existing solutions for implementing control flow. Usually, the existing solutions are too complex to be substituted by the WfMS all at once. Hence, the WfMS must support an incremental integration, i.e. the reuse of existing implementations of control flow as well as their incremental substitution. Extending the WfMS's functionality according to future application needs, e.g. by worklist and history management, must also be possible. In particular, at the beginning of an incremental integration process, only a limited amount of a WfMS's functionality is actually exploited by the workflow application. Later on, as the integration proceeds, more advanced requirements arise and demand the customization of the WfMS to the evolving application needs. In this paper, we present the architecture and implementation of a light-weight WfMS, coined Mentor-lite, which aims to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings of conventional WfMSs. Mentor-lite supports an easy integration of workflow functionality into an existing environment, and can be tailored to specific workflow application needs.

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