Workflow Management

A comprehensive introduction to workflow management.

Workflow management systems (WFMS) are enjoying increasing popular ity due to their ability to coordinate and streamline complex organizational processes within organizations of all sizes. Organizational processes are de scriptions of an organization's activities engineered to fulfill its mission such as completing a business contract or satisfying a specific customer request. Gaining control of these processes allows an organization to reengineer and improve each process or adapt them to changing requirements. The goal of WFMSs is to manage these organizational processes and coordinate their execution. was demonstrated in the first half The high degree of interest in WFMSs of the 1990s by a significant increase in the number of commercial products (once estimated to about 250) and the estimated market size (in combined $2 billion in 1996. Ensuing maturity product sales and services) of about is demonstrated by consolidations during the last year. Ranging from mere e-mail based calendar tools and flow charting tools to very sophisticated inte grated development environments for distributed enterprise-wide applications and systems to support programming in the large, these products are finding an eager market and opening up important research and development op portunities. In spite of their early success in the market place, however, the current generation of systems can benefit from further research and develop ment, especially for increasingly complex and mission-critical applications.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to workflow management, the management of business processes with information technology. By defining, analyzing, and redesigning an organization's resources and operations, workflow management systems ensure that the right information reaches the right person or computer application at the right time. The book provides a basic overview of workflow terminology and organization, as well as detailed coverage of workflow modeling with Petri nets. Because Petri nets make definitions easier to understand for nonexperts, they facilitate communication between designers and users. The book includes a chapter of case studies, review exercises, and a glossary. A special Web site developed by the authors, www.workflowcourse.com, features animation, interactive examples, lecture materials, exercises and solutions, relevant links, and other valuable resources for the classroom.

All of us have learned a lot during this exercise, and the enormous success of the first edition of this book shows the great international interest for the topic and the results. A French edition appeared last year and met with equal interest. Springer-Verlag has therefore decided to publish a second edition of this book, which is not just a reprint but brings the literature and results to the newest state. This is a rare occurrence in the history of the LNCS series. We congratulate Thomas Schael on this success, and we are sure that reader- scientists and practitioners - will likewise profit from it. Aachen and Milan Giorgio De Michelis, Klaus Henning, Matthias Jarke August 1998 Preface to the Second Edition This book is a bit of a mixture of scientific and management literature. It is based on my research activities in the CSCW community, and also reflects the last ten years of my professional experience in consulting. I have had the opportunity to live in different cultural settings, to work in many companies, and to meet people all over the world, which has helped me to reflect on what I was doing and to focus on the content of this book. This second edition reflects the fast moving field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and the discussion on Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). It contains the latest developments in the scientific and managerial discussion of the issues developed in the first edition.

It is now possible to gain competitive advantages based on consolidated R/3 system implementations. One of the most important optimisation aspects is a more consistent process integration in order to bring about fast, secure and cost effective business processes. This approach inevitably leads to Workflow Management and for SAP users to SAP® WebFlow®. This book introduces the topic of Workflow Management, gives an overview of the technical possibilities of SAP® WebFlow® and allows the reader to assess SAP workflow project risks and costs/benefits based on real life examples. Check lists and technical hints not only aid the reader in evaluating potential projects but also in the management of real life workflow project engineering.

Foreword by industry legend Harold Kerzner! This book describes a completely unique step-by-step, workflow-guiding approach to project management which simplifies activities by enforcing execution of all required processes on time, and redirecting to an alternative path in the event of project issues. Since compliance with all project management processes is enforced by the workflow, product quality is significantly improved and life cycle errors are almost eliminated. Project Workflow Management: A Business Process Approach is the first and only book in the marketplace which enables readers with no prior project management experience to manage the entire life cycle of any small to mid-sized project. It also equips mid- and senior-level project managers with directions and a detailed map to the effective management of complex projects and programs.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Conventional workflow management focuses on improving the efficiency of business processes within one organization. However, processes should not only be supported within the enterprise, but also when crossing organizational boundaries, e.g. in order to support new forms of collaborations as virtual enterprises. Due to the different nature of interorganizational workflows, conventional workflow technology cannot be directly applied. The most important requirement specific to interorganizational workflow systems is obviously that they are able to deal with heterogeneity and that it is not too expensive to achieve interoperability. Also maintaining the privacy of internal processes is a major concern, and security issues should be addressed. This diploma thesis gives an introduction to conventional and interorganizational workflow management, their aspects and concepts. It elaborates the requirements relevant for interorganizational workflow systems, describes the most important approaches, projects, and initiatives that currently exist in the area of interorganizational workflows, including XML-based approaches, the standards of the WfMC, electronic marketplaces and electronic contracting. An evaluation of these approaches based on criteria derived from the requirements and other characteristics shows the differing strengths and weaknesses. The XML-based approaches provide standards for the process interfaces, and can cope with heterogeneous environments very well. Some of them even allow spontaneous commerce with new trading partners without custom integration. Traditional EDI is in principle similar, but has many disadvantages. The standards of the WfMC enable integration with a very low effort, if they are followed by software providers. But privacy and security are potential problem areas and the models of interoperability that realistically can be supported are simple. Electronic marketplaces and electronic contracting are ideal, if a high number of business partners has to be supported and the services are chosen dynamically depending on the situation. But these services have to be comparable with rather simple interfaces. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: 1.Introduction1 2.Workflow Management4 2.1Requirements on WfMSs6 2.2Workflow Modeling8 2.2.1The Functional Aspect: Workflows and Activities8 2.2.2The Operational Aspect: Applications9 2.2.3The Behavioral Aspect: Control Flow10 2.2.4The Informational [...]