Towards a Classification Framework for Application Granularity in Workflow Management Systems

The support of process enactment through the use of workflow management systems has gained considerable attention within the last few years. We develop a classification framework consisting of three different strategies for the use of workflow management systems and outline how these scenarios can be applied in practice. Following the definition of relevant terms in the we identify coordination techniques that are provided by workflow management systems in order to support the automation of business processes. These coordination techniques are evaluated with regard to their dependency on the granularity of applications using the classification framework. The results of this evaluation are compared and an outlook for future research is given. 1 Basic Workflow Geology For the realization of integrated information systems, several integration perspectives have emerged in the past. Two of these perspectives are the integration of data, which is the subject of data management, and the integration of functions which is part of various process management-approaches. A major part of today's business applications satisfies the demands of process orientation only to a minor extent, because they are built as functional program hierarchies and, therefore, are oriented among the fulfillment of single functions. Workflow management systems provide the opportunity to integrate these functionally structured applications into process oriented applications. They guide the user along the business processes to be executed and provide the data and applications that are necessary for the execution of the partial functions. A workflow is the part of a work process that contains the sequence of functions and information about the data and resources involved in the execution of these functions. It is described using a workflow model, which usually does not describe the behavior of the single functions or the data to be processed as long as these do not determine the flow of work itself [1]. A workflow management system (WfMS) is an information system that enables the execution, coordination and control of workflows. A workflow application is the combination of a WfMS and the invoked application systems that is used to support the execution of a work process based on a workflow model [2]. Becker, J.; zur Muehlen, M.: Towards a Classification Framework for Application Granularity in Workflow Management Systems. In: Jarke, M. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering 1999 (CAiSE 99), Heidelberg 1999, pp. 411-416.