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2.工作流概述
2.1 什么是工作流？
工作流是一些过程的自动操作，在这些过程里，文档，信息或者任务按照定义好的一系列规则在参与者之间传递，以完成或有益于整个业务目标。同时流程也可以手动组织，在实践中，大部分的工作流通常组织在IT系统得环境中，为这些程序化的自动操作提供计算机化的支持，WFMC直接指导在这个方面的工作。
定义：工作流
用计算机来简化或自动化全部或部分业务过程。
工作流经常和业务流程重组(译者注：即BPR）联系在一起，后者关系到评估，分析，建模，定义和确定一个组织（或其他业务实体）的核心业务处理操作的执行顺序。BRP活动并不一定导致工作流的实施，但是工作流技术经常是一个恰当的解决方案，它提供分离的业务过程逻辑，其IT操作支持并让接连发生的变化组合进定义了业务过程的程序化规则。相反地，工作流不一定要按照BPR的某些做法来实施，例如实现一个现有业务过程的自动化。
工作流管理系统提供业务处理过程的程序化自动操作，它管理各个工作活动的顺序，调动适当的人力资源/IT资源，使他们按各种不同的活动步骤联系在一起。
定义：工作流管理系统
一种通过执行执行顺序是由工作流逻辑的计算机表现驱动的软件来完全定义、管理和执行“工作流”的系统。
一个单独的业务过程的生命周期，根据其复杂性和各种组成活动的持续时间，可能从几分钟到几天（甚至上月）。这样的系统可能有多种实现方式，从本地工作组到跨国公司，会使用各种各样的IT和通讯架构和操作。MFMC参考模型因此对工作流管理进行非常广泛的观察，其目的就是提供多种实现技术和表现这种技术的特征的运行环境。
尽管类型多样，但是，所有的WFM（译者注：工作流管理）系统都表现出某些共性，这为发展不同产品之间的整合和协同工作的能力提供了基础。引用模型为工作流系统的构造描述了一个公共的模型，并确定了它和各种可选实施途径的关系。
在最高的层次，所有的WFM系统可能有具有体统3个功能领域的特征：
1、构建时功能，这关系到定义——可能还关系到建模—— 工作流过程和它的组成活动。
2-运行时的控制功能，这关系到管理在运行环境中的工作流过程，按先后顺序把各种活动当作其各自过程的一部分来处理
3、运行时用户（人）和为处理各种活动的步骤的各种IT应用工具之间的交互。
图1表示了WFM系统的基本特征以及这些主要功能之间的关系。
图1 工作流系统特征
2.1.1 构建时功能
构建时功能是指给出业务过程的定义,该定义能用计算机来处理的功能。在这个阶段，通过使用一种或多种分析、建模和系统定义技巧，把一个业务过程从现实世界翻译成一个格式化的，能被计算机处理的定义。该定义有时叫做过程模型，过程模版，过程元数据或者过程定义。本文使用“过程定义”这个术语。
定义：过程定义
过程的可以用计算机处理的表现方式，包括对手动操作的定义和对流程的定义。
一个过程定义通常由许多离散的活动步骤组成，由联系在一起的人/机操作和规则通过不同的活动步骤控制着过程的进度。过程定义可是文本的，图形的形式，或者是某种形式语言符号。就如在上图中的反馈箭头指出的那样，有些工作流系统可以允许动态的从运行时操作环境切换到过程定义。
联盟成员没有考虑把如何生成过程定义作为标准化的领域，而且，考虑把这作为市场上不同产品之间的主要区别。然而，构建时操作的成果——过程定义——被确定为标准化的一个潜在领域，以便让过程定义数据在不同构建时工具和运行时产品之间可以交换。
2.1.2 运行时的过程控制功能
在运行的时候，软件根据过程的定义负责生成、控制过程的操作实力，在过程内按时序安排各种不同的活动的步骤，并调用适当的人力和IT应用等资源。这些运行时的过程控制功能充当着按照“过程定义”建模出来的过程和现实世界的过程的连接器，并由在运行时刻的人机交互体现出来。其核心组件就是基础工作流管理控制软件（或者叫做“引擎”），他负责过程的生成和删除，控制着运行过程的各个活动的时序，控制着应用工具和人力资源之间的交互活动。这种软件经常跨越分布在多种不同的计算机平台上，用以处理运行在不同地域基础上的各种过程。
2.1.3 运行时活动的交互
在一个工作流内部的各个单个活动通常和人的操作有关，经常用特殊的IT工具（例如表单填写）和信息处理操作一起表现，这种操作需要一些特殊的程序来操作某些定义好了的信息。和过程控制软件之间的相互交互必须能够在各个活动之间传递控制、确定过程的操作状态、调用应用工具、传递适当的数据，如此等等。有一个支持这种类别的交互的标准框架有一些好处，可以使用一个统一的接口给多个工作流系统，并且可以开发一个公共的应用工具给不同的工作流产品。
2.1.4 分发和系统接口
在参与者之间分发任务和信息的能力是工作流运行时基础结构的一个主要区别特征。根据工作流的范围，分发功能可能运行在各种层次上（从工作组到跨国公司）；它可能使用各种底层的通讯机制（电子邮件，消息传递，对象分发技术等等）。在图2所表示的工作流结构的顶层试图中，着重表现了这种分发特征。
工作流制定服务作为核心的基础结构功能表现了出来，它带有给分布在跨工作流领域的用户和应用的接口。每一个这些接口都是一个位于工作流制定服务和其他基础结构或应用组件之间的潜在的整合点。
图2流程制定服务内的分发
工作的流程可能包括在不同的供应商的工作流产品之间传递任务，使业务过程的不同部分发生在使用特殊产品适配这些过程的阶段的，不同的平台上或子网络中。在这种场景中，在中心盒子中的流程在2个或更多的工作流产品间传递——例如活动1，2和5可能由1个工作流系统执行，而活动3和4由一个不同的系统执行——附带在整个工作流内部在适当的点上传递控制。支持这种工作流控制传输的标准让混合的工作流应用在使用几个不同的工作流产品时就像一个单一的逻辑实体在运行。
因而由WFM联盟定义的整个范围的接口包括：
过程定义数据及这些数据交换的规范
支持不同工作流协同工作的接口
支持和不同IT应用类型交互的接口
支持和用户界面——桌面功能——交互的接口
提供系统监视和公制功能的接口来简化复合工作流应用环境的管理
这些将在第3章有进一步的阐述。
英文原文
2. Workflow Systems Overview
2.1. What is Workflow?
Workflow is concerned with the automation of procedures where documents, information or tasks are passed between participants according to a defined set of rules to achieve, or contribute to, an overall business goal. Whilst workflow may be manually organised, in practice most workflow is normally organised within the context of an IT system to provide computerised support for the procedural automation and it is to this area that the work of the Coalition is directed.
Definition - Workflow
The computerised facilitation or automation of a business process, in whole or part.
Workflow is often associated with Business Process Re-engineering, which is concerned with the assessment, analysis, modelling, definition and subsequent operational implementation of the core business processes of an organisation (or other business entity). Although not all BPR activities result in workflow implementations, workflow technology is often an appropriate solution as it provides separation of the business procedure logic and its IT operational support, enabling subsequent changes to be incorporated into the procedural rules defining the business process. Conversely, not all workflow implementations necessarily form part of a BPR exercise, for example implementations to automate an existing business procedure.
A Workflow Management System is one which provides procedural automation of a business process by management of the sequence of work activities and the invocation of appropriate human and/or IT resources associated with the various activity steps.
Definition - Workflow Management System
A system that completely defines, manages and executes “workflows” through the execution of software whose order of execution is driven by a computer representation of the workflow logic.
An individual business process may have a life cycle ranging from minutes to days (or even months), depending upon its complexity and the duration of the various constituent activities. Such systems may be implemented in a variety of ways, use a wide variety of IT and communications infrastructure and operate in an environment ranging from small local workgroup to inter-enterprise. The WFMC Reference Model thus takes a broad view of workflow management, which is intended to accommodate the variety of implementation techniques and operational environments which characterise this technology.
Despite this variety, all WFM systems exhibit certain common characteristics, which provide a basis for developing integration and interoperability capability between different products. The Reference Model describes a common model for the construction of workflow systems and identifies how it may be related to various alternative implementation approaches.
At the highest level, all WFM systems may be characterised as providing support in three functional areas:
TC00-1003 Issue 1.1 Workflow Reference Model Printed 19/11/98
. the Build-time functions, concerned with defining, and possibly modelling, the workflow process and its constituent activities
. the Run-time control functions concerned with managing the workflow processes in an operational environment and sequencing the various activities to be handled as part of each process
. the Run-time interactions with human users and IT application tools for processing the various activity steps
Figure 1 illustrates the basic characteristics of WFM systems and the relationships between these main functions.
Figure 1- Workflow System Characteristics
2.1.1. Build-time Functions
The Build-time functions are those which result in a computerised definition of a business process. During this phase, a business process is translated from the real world into a formal, computer processable definition by the use of one or more analysis, modelling and system definition techniques. The resulting definition is sometimes called a process model, a process template, process metadata, or a process definition. For purposes of this document, the term 'process definition' will be used.
Definition - Process Definition
The computerised representation of a process that includes the manual definition and workflow definition.
A process definition normally comprises a number of discrete activity steps, with associated computer and/or human operations and rules governing the progression of the process through the various activity steps. The process definition may be expressed in textual or graphical form or in a formal language notation. Some workflow systems may allow dynamic alterations to process definitions from the run-time operational environment, as indicated by the feed-back arrow in the above diagram.
Coalition members do not consider the initial creation of process definitions to be an area of standardisation. Rather, this is considered to be a major distinguishing area between products in the marketplace. However, the result of the Build-time operation, the process definition, is identified as one of the potential areas of standardisation to enable the interchange of process definition data between different build-time tools and runtime products.
2.1.2. Run-time Process Control Functions
At run-time the process definition is interpreted by software which is responsible for creating and controlling operational instances of the process, scheduling the various activities steps within the process and invoking the appropriate human and IT application resources, etc. These run-time process control functions act as the linkage between the process as modelled within the process definition and the process as it is seen in the real world, reflected in the runtime interactions of users and IT application tools. The core component is the basic workflow management control software (or "engine"), responsible for process creation & deletion, control of the activity scheduling within an operational process and interaction with application tools or human resources. This software is often distributed across a number of computer platforms to cope with processes which operate over a wide geographic basis.
2.1.3. Run-time Activity Interactions
Individual activities within a workflow process are typically concerned with human operations, often realised in conjunction with the use of a particular IT tool (for example, form filling), or with information processing operations requiring a particular application program to operate on some defined information (for example, updating an orders database with a new record). Interaction with the process control software is necessary to transfer control between activities, to ascertain the operational status of processes, to invoke application tools and pass the appropriate data, etc. There are several benefits in having a standardised framework for supporting this type of interaction, including the use of a consistent interface to multiple workflow systems and the ability to develop common application tools to work with different workflow products.
2.1.4. Distribution & System Interfaces
The ability to distribute tasks and information between participants is a major distinguishing feature of workflow runtime infrastructure. The distribution function may operate at a variety of levels (workgroup to inter-organisation) depending upon the scope of the workflows; it may use a variety of underlying communications mechanisms (electronic mail, messaging passing, distributed object technology, etc). An alternative top-level view of workflow architecture which emphasises this distribution aspect is shown in figure 2 on the following page.
The workflow enactment service is shown as the core infrastructure function with interfaces to users and applications distributed across the workflow domain. Each of these interfaces is a potential point of integration between the workflow enactment service and other infrastructure or application components.
Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 Workflow Management Coalition Page 8 of 8
Fig 2 - Distribution within the workflow enactment service
The flow of work may involve the transfer of tasks between different vendors workflow products to enable different parts of the business process to be enacted on different platforms or sub-networks using particular products suited to that stage of the process. In this scenario the flow within the central box passes between two or more workflow products - for example activities 1,2 and 5 may be executed by one workflow system and activities 3 and 4 by a different system, with control passed between them at appropriate points within the overall workflow. Standards to support this transfer of workflow control enable the development of composite workflow applications using several different workflow products operating together as a single logical entity.
The full range of interfaces being defined by the WFM Coalition therefore covers:
. specifications for process definition data and its interchange
. interfaces to support interoperability between different workflow systems
. interfaces to support interaction with a variety of IT application types
. interfaces to support interaction with user interface desktop functions
. interfaces to provide system monitoring and metric functions to facilitate the management of composite workflow application environments
These are further developed in Section 3.
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