The developing field of workflow management systems has led to numerous implementations that relate workflow processes, users with defined roles, and activities with prescribed execution characteristics. Many systems provide a graphical user interface for runtime human interaction. This paper presents a design overview of a minimalist, distributed workflow engine that can be embedded in another application or application suite. This workflow subsystem is not visible to the end user at runtime nor does it require a directory of users or activities. It is designed for high performance, scalability and availability. An asynchronous, event-driven process model is used rather than the more typical activity process model. We also discuss our experiences deploying this system, benchmark tests and some areas for future work.
By: Guy Hochgesang, Richard Cardone, Houtan Aghili
Published in: RC20869 in 1997
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