A workflow management system (WfMS or WFMS) provides an infrastructure for the set-up, performance and monitoring of a defined sequence of tasks, arranged as a workflow application.

International standards

There are several international standards-setting bodies in the field of workflow management: *

Workflow Management Coalition Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) was a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems. The coalition was disbanded in 2019 and no longer exists. History The Coalition was founded in May 1993 wi ...

* World Wide Web Consortium * Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards * WS-BPEL 2.0 (integration-centric) and WS-BPEL4People (human task-centric) published by OASIS Standards Body. The underlying theoretical basis of workflow management is the mathematical concept of a Petri net. Each of the workflow models has tasks (nodes) and dependencies between the nodes. Tasks are activated when the dependency conditions are fulfilled.

Workflows for people

WfMS allow the user to define different workflows for different types of jobs or processes. For example, in a manufacturing setting, a design document might be automatically routed from designer to a technical director to the production engineer. At each stage in the workflow, one individual or group is responsible for a specific task. Once the task is complete, WfMS ensures that the individuals responsible for the next task are notified and receive the data they need to execute their stage of the process. Workflows can also have more complex dependencies; for example if a document is to be translated into several languages, a translation manager could select the languages and each selection would then be activated as a work order form for a different translator. Only when all the translators have completed their respective tasks would the next task in the process be activated. It is process management from top level to lower level. WfMS also automate redundant tasks and ensure that uncompleted tasks are followed up. A key standard that deals with human tasks in workflows is the WS-BPEL4People Standard by the OASIS Standards Body.

Automated workflows

WfMS may control automated processes in addition to replacing paper work order transfers. For example, if the above design documents are now available as AutoCAD but the workflow requires them as Catia, then an automated process would implement the conversion prior to notifying the individual responsible for the next task. This is the concept of

enterprise application integration Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. Overview Enterprise application integration is an integration framework comp ...

. WfMS also appear in distributed IT environments such as

grid computing Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from ...

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...

. The aim of such systems is to manage the execution of various processes that may belong to the same application while in many cases they are used as a means to guarantee the offered

quality of service Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitat ...

(QoS).An innovative workflow mapping mechanism for Grids in the frame of Quality of Service, WfMS may also be enhanced by using existing enterprise infrastructure such as Microsoft Outlook or Office 365.

Functional categorization

Workflow systems can be categorized in the following categories based on their functionalities: * Integration-centric workflow systems * Human task-centric workflow systems * XCFG

List of notable WfMS

* Activiti *

Apache ODE Apache ODE (Apache Orchestration Director Engine) is a software coded in Java as a workflow engine to manage business processes which have been expressed in the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) via a website. It was made ...

* Apache Taverna *

Apache Airflow Apache Airflow is an open-source workflow management platform for data engineering pipelines. It started at Airbnb in October 2014 as a solution to manage the company's increasingly complex workflows. Creating Airflow allowed Airbnb to programmat ...

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἀππιανὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς ''Appianòs Alexandreús''; la, Appianus Alexandrinus; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Ha ...

* Bizagi *

Bonita BPM Bonita is an open-source business process management and Low-code development platform created in 2001. Bonita technology was developed originally in 2001 by Miguel Valdés Faura, at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Autom ...

* Camunda * CEITON * Collective Knowledge *

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

* IBM BPM *

Imixs-Workflow Imixs Workflow is an Open-Source-Project, providing technologies for building Business Process Management solutions. The project focus on human based workflows used to execute and control workflows in organisations and enterprises. In difference t ...

* QuickBase *

jBPM jBPM (Java Business Process Model) is an open-source workflow engine written in Java that can execute business processes described in BPMN 2.0 (or its own process definition language jPDL in earlier versions). jBPM is a toolkit for building bu ...

* PRPC * ProActive *

Pyrus Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the po ...

* Qntrl *

RedBooth Redbooth (formerly Teambox) is a web-based workplace collaboration tool and communication platform. History Redbooth, previously known as Teambox Technologies S.L., who developed Teambox, was founded in 2008 and continued to serve commercial and ...

Workflow Management *

Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...

Process Workflow *

ServiceNow ServiceNow is an American software company based in Santa Clara, California that develops a cloud computing platform to help companies manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. Founded in 2003 by Fred Luddy, ServiceNow is listed on the ...

Platform * SAP Business Workflow *

TACTIC Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tacti ...

* Windows Workflow Foundation * WorkflowGen *

YAWL A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

Built-in WfMS as part of the function

* Jira * Workfront

References

{{Reflist Workflow technology