Top
Preface
Why Read This Book?
Workflow is a new information processing technology that helps implement businessprocesses that can be easily adapted to the changing needs of a dynamic environment.These processes are no longer just intra-enterprise business processes, suchas claims processing in an insurance company or loan processing in a bank, but alsointer-enterprise business processes, where multiple enterprises' business processesare connected to efficiently manage a business process. An example of an inter-enterprisebusiness process is the order activity involved in a manufacturing processthat starts the appropriate order entry process at a parts supplier. While the productionplanning process and the entry order process of the part supplier are differentprocesses controlled by their own enterprise, they are combined to efficiently meettheir common needs.
Workflow management systems help to define and carry out these businessprocesses in a heterogeneous and distributed environment. They make sure thatwithin a business process the right activity is performed at the right time, at theright place, by the right people, with the right data, using the right tools. Applicationsthat are built using workflow management systems are called workflow-basedapplications.
Standard application software vendors are beginning to provide their applicationsas workflow-based applications. These applications consist of a set of businessprocesses that invoke functions of business objects. Tools supplied by standard applicationsoftware vendors allow for the easy modification of the business processesso that they can be tailored to the specific needs of customers.
Since those workflows are mission critical for a company, they must be managedin the same way as any other critical resource within a company. This managementrequires functions and capabilities that go beyond the simple administrativetype of workflows, such as managing processes with an office mail system. Theseworkflows are called production workflows, and systems that manage productionworkflows are called production workflow management systems.
Production workflow management systems thus must provide the scalability,availability, and performance characteristics that are expected from other components that are used to build those mission-critical applications. Typical componentsare database management systems, message queuing systems, and transaction processing(TP) monitors. This set of components is collectively referred to as middleware.
The authors expect that middleware providers follow IBM and make workflowmanagement systems an integral part of their middleware offerings, building oncomponents that may already be available in their portfolio.
The mission-critical nature of workflow-based applications mandates that thecustomer's investment is protected. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC),a consortium of workflow management system vendors and users, had set itself thegoal to establish standards for workflow management systems. Those standardsdefine a set of interfaces for clients to interact with the workflow managementsystem, for applications that are carried out by the workflow management system,and for workflow management systems to communicate with each other.
What You Will Find in This Book
This book focuses, as its title indicates, on the following aspects of workflow andworkflow management systems:
- The concepts underlying workflow, and in particular, production workflow, the relationship between workflow and other technologies, and the applicability of workflow to other less traditional areas.
- The techniques that are applied in the implementation of a production workflow management system, highlighting the architecture and system structure with emphasis on availability, reliability, and scalability.
We have chosen two business processes that we use throughout the book: avery simple loan process when we talk about basic concepts; and a more elaborateprocess, a travel reservation process, when we talk about the constructs that theworkflow management system offers for modeling business processes or when wedescribe some of the more complex features such as compensation of actions withina business process.
What You Will Not Find in This Book
This book does not present:
- How to use a particular workflow management system, whether it is end-user functions, system management tools, or programming interfaces. You can find this information in the appropriate workflow management systems' documentation. The samples in the book are for illustration only.
- Detailed information about workflow system standards. We outline their intended goals and structure; however, for detailed information, we refer you to publications of the appropriate standards bodies, such as the Workflow Management Coalition or the Object Management Group.
- Comparison of functions and implementations of different production workflow systems. The intent of the book is to present and discuss the concepts behind production workflow and how these concepts can be delivered by a workflow management system to allow you a judicious judgement of the capabilities of individual workflow systems.
- Information about ad hoc workflow management systems, for example, as delivered by Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange. We discuss the differences between ad hoc and production workflow systems in the book; you should obtain, however, detailed information from the appropriate workflow management systems' documentation.
- Information about systems that have workflow built in, such as document or image processing systems. We will briefly discuss their functions when positioning them to workflow management systems; however, for details, consult other books.
Who Should Read This Book
This book addresses a broad audience, including:
- Application programmers with an interest or need in building workflow-based applications
- Application analysts who design workflow-based applications
- Consultants in business reengineering and application restructuring
- Product developers in related areas, such as developers of business objects
- Marketing people who need to understand the benefits of workflow-based applications and the characteristics of production workflow systems
- IT managers who want to understand the system structure of production workflow systems and how those systems provide for availability, scalability, and performance
- Computer science undergraduates and graduates looking for an in-depth discussion of workflow and workflow management systems
Why We Wrote This Book
We, the authors, have been involved in the development of the IBM productionworkflow management system MQSeries Workflow and its predecessor IBM Flow-Markfor years. This book reflects our understanding of workflow and productionworkflow in particular. As we have yet to see a product version of a workflow systemthat incorporates all of the presented concepts and techniques, we have electedto neutrally talk about the workflow management system instead of discussing individualconcepts using, for example, IBM's MQSeries Workflow. In particular, wewant to present the concepts and techniques of production workflow and not discussspecific implementations of these. A number of the concepts and techniques presentedin this book have been implemented in a production workflow managementsystem such as MQSeries Workflow; some may never find their way into a productdespite the fact that they are worth implementing. You should also note that anumber of these concepts and techniques are patented, anyone planning to build aworkflow management system using them must obtain the appropriate rights beforeincorporating them.
Author Biography
Table of Contents
2. Business Engineering.
3. Workflow Management System Basics.
4. Metamodel.
5. Advanced Functions.
6. Workflows and Objects.
7. Workflows and Transactions.
8. Advanced Usage.
9. Application Topologies.
10. Architecture and System Structure.
11. Development of Workflow-based Applications.
A Travel Reservation Example.
B List of Symbols.
Bibliography.
Index.
Supplemental Materials
The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
