Workflow interoperability standards for the Internet

Abstract

usiness-to-business integration is transforming the market and has already begun to increase the efficiency of those companies involved. The first step, integration of data, began with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the 1980s. The second step, integration of process information, is only now beginning to emerge. Consider a fictitious company, Acme Manufacturing, that ships its products via Federal Express. In the past, Acme used a dedicated computer with proprietary software to arrange pickups directly from Federal Express. Today Acme can use the Federal Express website to arrange for shipment and to follow a package's progress in real time. Acme can check whether the package has been delivered to the station, transported to the destination city, delivered to the addressee, or signed for at its final destination. By making process information available through the Web, Federal Express does not need a support department to give this information over the phone. If Acme wants to order a computer from Dell Computer Corporation, it can do so through the Dell website. Acme can also track the order's progress through five stages: order processing, preproduction, production, delivery prep, and shipping. Again, making this simplified external view of their internal order fulfillment processes available over the Web saves Dell the expense of answering status questions over the phone. Say Dell subcontracts delivery to Airborne Express, a firm with a similar Web interface. Once the Dell process reaches the shipped state, users can follow a link directly to the Airborne website, which gives additional detail about the shipment status. ENABLING E-BUSINESS WORKFLOW Many companies (such as the examples cited above) have shown that providing process status in a user-readable form over the Web is valuable to business. There is an additional value to be gained from providing that information in a machine-readable form.

A peer to peer (P2P) architecture for dynamic workflow management

“…The Wf-XML Binding (WfXML) standard describes a language that is independent from any particular implementation mechanism that supports the exchange of messages between workflows [29]. The WfMC Workflow Interoperability standard defines an abstract protocol for interaction of workflow enactment services across business domain boundaries [7,26]. † The Web Services Flow Language (WSFL), proposed by IBM, is an XML language for defining workflow processes within the framework of the Web services architecture composition [9].…”

Implementation of Business Process Reengineering Based on Workflow Management

“…Workflow is often associated with BPR, which is concerned with the assessment, analysis, modeling, definition and subsequent operational implementation of the core BP of an organization (or other business entity) [9]. Although not all BPR activities result in workflow implementations, workflow technology is often an appropriate solution as it provides separation of the business procedure logic and its IT operational support, enabling subsequent changes to be incorporated into the procedural rules defining the BP.…”

Towards an Open Source Localisation Orchestration Framework

“…The Wf-XML message set defined by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and The Simple Workflow Access Protocol (SWAP) are examples of such internet-scale workflow standards (Hayes et al, 2000). Most of these standards only define the data and metadata structure while standards such as Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), and the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP) focus on the transportation of data structures (Hayes et al, 2000).…”

“…In order to address these issues, workflow interoperability standards have been proposed (Hayes et al, 2000) to promote greater efficiency and to reduce cost. The Wf-XML message set defined by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and The Simple Workflow Access Protocol (SWAP) are examples of such internet-scale workflow standards (Hayes et al, 2000).…”