Synonyms
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
van der Aalst W. et al. Workflow Management: models, methods, and systems. MIT, Cambridge, MA, 2002.
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.
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.
Ellis C.A. and Nutt G.J. Office Information Systems and Computer Science. ACM Comput. Surv., 12(1): 27–60, 1980.
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.
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.
Jablonski S. and Bussler C. Workflow management: modeling concepts, architecture and implementation. Int. Thomson Computer, 1996.
Leymann F. and Roller D. Production workflow. Prentice-Hall, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ, 2000.
The Workflow Reference Model. Workflow Management Coalition, 1995.
Workflow management coalition terminology and glossary [R]. Workflow Management Coalition, 1999.
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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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