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Workflow Management

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Handbook on Business Process Management 1

Part of the book series: International Handbooks on Information Systems ((INFOSYS))

Abstract

Workflow management has its origin in the office automation systems of the seventies, but it is not until fairly recently that conceptual and technological breakthroughs have led to its widespread adoption. In fact, nowadays, process-awareness has become an accepted and integral part of various types of systems. Through the use of process-aware information systems, workflows can be specified and enacted, thus providing automated support for business processes. A workflow explicitly represents control-flow dependencies between the various tasks of the business process, the information that is required and that can be produced by them, and the link between these tasks and the resources, be they human or not, which can execute them. In this way, processes can be performed more efficiently and effectively, compliance with respect to standard procedures and practices can be monitored more closely, and rapid change in response to evolving market conditions can be achieved more easily. This chapter provides an overview of the field of workflow management.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.wfmc.org

  2. 2.

    http://www.workflowpatterns.com

  3. 3.

    See an up-to-date list of vendors’ evaluations of tools and standards in terms of the original twenty control-flow patterns at http://www.workflowpatterns.com/vendors.

  4. 4.

    The YAWL editor is a graphical design environment for creating YAWL specifications.

  5. 5.

    www.yawlfoundation.org/theory/simulation.php

  6. 6.

    www.staffware.com/resources/software/bpm/tibco_iprocess_suite_whitepaper.pdf

  7. 7.

    www.cosa-bpm.com/project/docs/COSA_BPM_5_Productdescription_eng.pdf

  8. 8.

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/yawl/

  9. 9.

    http://www.cci.edu.au

  10. 10.

    This function relies on XSLT transformations to convert the XML of the form to HTML.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Systems School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Chun Ouyang

  2. Queensland University of Technology Business Process Management Group, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Michael Adams & Moe Thandar Wynn

  3. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede

Authors
  1. Chun Ouyang
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  2. Michael Adams
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  3. Moe Thandar Wynn
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  4. Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chun Ouyang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information Systems, University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Jan vom Brocke

  2. School of Information Systems, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Michael Rosemann

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Ouyang, C., Adams, M., Wynn, M.T., ter Hofstede, A.H.M. (2015). Workflow Management. In: vom Brocke, J., Rosemann, M. (eds) Handbook on Business Process Management 1. International Handbooks on Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45100-3_21

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