WFMC-TC-1003:工作流管理系统参考模型解析

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"WFMC-TC-1003-工作流参考模型是Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC)发布的一份规范文档,旨在为工作流管理系统(Workflow Management Systems, WMS)提供一个公共的参考模型,定义其特性、术语、结构和组件接口。此文档旨在促进工作流系统的标准化和互操作性,同时也探讨了现有标准对WMS的适用性和与其他IT服务的集成可能性。" 本文档的主要内容包括以下几个方面: 1. **简介**:这部分介绍文档的背景、目的、范围、目标读者及阅读指南。背景部分阐述了工作流管理系统的重要性和发展背景,而目的则明确指出建立参考模型的意义在于规范工作流系统的组件和接口。 2. **工作流系统概述**:详细解释了工作流的定义及其核心功能。工作流包括建立时期的配置功能、运行时的过程控制、活动交互以及任务分配和系统接口。此外,还讨论了工作流系统的发展历程,以及不同产品实现模型的特点。 3. **产品实现模型**:这部分探讨了不同的实现策略,包括可能的架构和设计选择,这有助于开发者理解如何在实际环境中应用工作流管理系统。 4. **可选择的实现方式**:列举了多种工作流管理系统可能的实施场景,分析了它们的优缺点,以指导开发者根据具体需求选择合适的实现方法。 5. **标准与集成**:文档分析了现有标准如XML、EDI等对工作流管理系统的适用性,并讨论了WMS如何与其他信息技术服务(如ERP、CRM)集成,以实现更高效的工作流程自动化。 6. **修订历史**:列出了文档的更新和修订记录,显示了WFMC对工作流管理系统标准的持续改进和调整。 该文档对于理解和实现工作流管理系统具有极高的参考价值,不仅为开发者提供了指导,也为企业的IT决策者提供了选择合适工作流解决方案的依据。通过遵循WFMC的参考模型,可以确保工作流系统的互操作性和兼容性,从而提升整个组织的工作效率和流程管理质量。
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1. Introduction 1.1. Background Work Flow Management is a fast evolving technology which is increasingly being exploited by businesses in a variety of industries. Its primary characteristic is the automation of processes involving combinations of human and machine-based activities, particularly those involving interaction with IT applications and tools. Although its most prevalent use is within the office environment in staff intensive operations such as insurance, banking, legal and general administration, etc, it is also applicable to some classes of industrial and manufacturing applications . Many software vendors have WFM products available today which involve WFM technology and there is a continual introduction of more products into the market. The availability of a wide range of products within the market has allowed individual product vendors to focus on particular functional capabilities and users have adopted particular products to meet specific application needs. However, there are, as yet, no standards defined to enable different WFM products to work together, which is resulting in incompatible "islands" of process automation. The WFM Coalition is a grouping of companies who have joined together to address the above situation. It has been recognised that all work flow management products have some common characteristics, enabling them potentially to achieve a level of interoperability through the use of common standards for various functions. The WFM Coalition has been established to identify these functional areas and develop appropriate specifications for implementation in workflow products. It is intended that such specifications will enable interoperability between heterogeneous workflow products and improved integration of workflow applications with other IT services such as electronic mail and document management, thereby improving the opportunities for the effective use of workflow technology within the IT market, to the benefit of both vendors and users of such technology. 1.2. Purpose The purpose of this document is to provide a framework to support the development of the various specifications described above. It provides a common "Reference Model" for workflow management systems identifying their characteristics, terminology and components, enabling the individual specifications to be developed within the context of an overall model for workflow systems. The detailed specifications will be developed as separate documents. 1.3. Scope This document covers the concepts, terminology, general structure of a workflow management system, its major functional components and the interfaces and information interchange flows between them. It identifies the areas appropriate for standardisation and illustrates the potential interoperability scenarios which may be supported through the use of common standards. It also discusses, where appropriate, the applicability of existing standards to workflow management systems and their integration with other standard IT services. It does not cover wider aspects of business process engineering which lie outside the use of information technology to support the business process. 1.4. Audience The intended audience of this document is the work flow coalition membership as well as others that are interested in the efforts of the coalition and wish to understand the top level technical architecture which underpins the work of the Coalition. The document is intended for a moderately technical audience but extensive prior knowledge of workflow systems is not assumed. 1.5. How to read this document Chapter 2 provides a general introduction to the concepts of workflow systems technology, its evolution, the business context and background on the types of systems which may incorporate this type of technology. If you are unfamiliar with workflow technology you should start here; if you are already familiar with workflow management systems, consider starting at Chapter 3. Chapter 3 discuses the internal structure of workflow systems, the major functional components and the nature of their interactions. It introduces the top level architecture and identifies the various interfaces which may be used to support interoperability between different system components and integration with other major IT infrastructure components. Chapter 4 provides a general overview of the workflow application programme interface (WAPI), comments on the necessary protocol support for open interworking and discusses the principles of conformance to the specifications. It identifies those aspects of the specifications which are required to support various classes of interoperability. The detailed WAPI specifications are published as separate specification documents (see cross references below).
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