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Workflow Management and Workflow Management System

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

Synonyms

Business process management

Definition

Business Process: A set of one or more linked procedures or activities that collectively realize a business objective or policy goal, normally within the context of an organizational structure defining functional roles and relationships [10].

Workflow: The automation of a business process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules [10].

Workflow Management System (WFMS): A system that defines, creates and manages the execution of workflows through the use of software, running on one or more workflow engine, which is able to interpret the process definition, interact with workflow participants and, where required, invoke the use of IT tools and applications [10].

Historical Background

In the 1980s, office automation was a major research focus with several topics, the support for the including movement of documents through...

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Recommended Reading

  1. van der Aalst W. et al. Workflow Management: models, methods, and systems. MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2002.

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  2. Dumas M., van der Aalst W.M., and ter Hofstede A.H. Process-aware information systems: bridging people and software through process technology. Wiley, 2005.

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  3. Eder J., Groiss H., and Liebhart W. The Workflow Management System Panta Rhei. In Workflow Management Systems and Interoperability. Kalinichenko, A. Dogac, M.T. Özsu, A. Sheth (eds). 1998. pp. 129–144.

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  4. Ellis C.A. and Nutt G.J. Office Information Systems and Computer Science. ACM Comput. Surv., 12(1): 27–60, 1980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ellis C.A. and Nutt G.J. Modeling and Enactment of Workflow Systems. In Proc. 14th Int. Conf. on Application and Theory of Petri Nets., 1993, pp. 1–16.

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  6. Georgakopoulos D., Hornick M., and Sheth A. An overview of workflow management: From process modeling to workflow automation infrastructure. Distrib. Parallel Databases, 3(2):119–153, 1995.

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  7. Jablonski S. and Bussler C. Workflow management: modeling concepts, architecture and implementation. Int. Thomson Computer, 1996.

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  8. Leymann F. and Roller D. Production workflow. Prentice-Hall, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, 2000.

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  9. The Workflow Reference Model. Workflow Management Coalition, 1995.

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  10. Workflow management coalition terminology and glossary [R]. Workflow Management Coalition, 1999.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vienna, Vienna,  , Austria

    Johann Eder

Authors
  1. Johann Eder
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Eder, J. (2009). Workflow Management and Workflow Management System. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_471

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