A Report on Workflow Management Systems

written by Francis Chan (fchan@eecs.berkeley.edu)

Objective

Workflow Management is an integral part of project and task management which affects those along the whole business and project chain. It is currently a hot topic in both industry and research. Workflow management applications span from Lotus Notes, a groupware, which resides close to the user and group collaboration level, to file and object configuration management applications such as ClearCase and Continuus/CM. Workflow is an especially important issue in a design environment as there are constant updates and editing as well as multiple engineers working on the same modules or files. With the recent emergence and deployment of the Internet and Intranets, an extra dimension of distributed processing and collaboration must be considered when designing the architecture of this new brand of applications. Through the research of workflow management applications, we hope to draw inspirations on the essentail qualities and characteristics of workflow applications so as to allow us to design and implement one for our distributed design environment.

Detailed Description

Evolution

Workflow systems have evolved greatly in the past two decades. First generation tools were mainly file-based version control applications such as Source Code Control System (SCCS), Revision Control System (RCS) and Concurrent Versions System (CVS) which supported a check-in/check-out model as well as simple branching. Archives store the contents (files) and meta data, such as user name, tags, comments, etc., for each version of the files.

Then came software configuration management tools, such as ClearCase and Continuus/CM. They provided file transparency and project repository as well as a more extensive versioning system, branching, merging, shared binaries and parallel development capabilities.

While software configuration tools related more towards programmers and designers, groupware, exemplified by Lotus Notes, targeted more towards project and group collaboration. Groupware provides capabilities such as a sophisticated messaging system, document processing, database and search support, directory service and access security control.

Characteristics of Workflow Management Systems

After taking an in-depth look into existing applications, we have come up with a set of characteristics that we feel are desirable, if not essential, for a (distributed web-based) workflow management system.

These capabilities include:

Version Control
Build Management
Process Management
Workspace Management
Tool Integration
User Interface

Version Control

Versioning all file system objects (text, image, binaries)
Versioning directories, sub-directories and file system links
Deltas to store and restore changes
Audit trail of source changes
Unlimited branching and branch labels
Visual merging to resolve parallel development
Parallel development (checkouts, locks)
Project support (in addition to managing on a file basis)

Build Management

Compatibility to existing Makefiles
Automatic detection and generation of source dependencies
Configuration editing (bill-of-materials)
Binary Sharing
Parallel development utilities (e.g. merge and diff)
Parallel and distributed building
Load balancing
Identification of releases
Recreation of previous releases

Process Management

Triggers (pre- and post-event handlers)
Lifecycle/Workflow stages and promotion
Customizable process model
Access control, registration and security
User groups/roles
Automatic notification of project personnel

Workspace Management

Rule-based environment management
Transparent access to controlled files and tools
Working directories/views

Tool Integration

Messaging system
Documentation database and search
Problem tracking
Workflow templates

User Interface

Web Interface (e.g. Java)
Graphical user interface
On-line help and documentation
Application programming interface

Status

We are currently in the process of defining a research project which involves developing a workflow management application. In addtion to drawing from experiences in using and performing product and literature research on workflow applications, we will also try to follow the reference model and terminology endorsed by the Workflow Management Coalition.

The workflow application that we plan to implement should enhance managing the flow, collaboration and administration of projects, especially design, that are performed by people over the Internet with independent platforms and applications. It should also serve as an application for the WELD system as well as contribute to the Design Technology and Wide Area Networks fields of design of distributed design system.