Premature silent workflow termination in publicly posted composite documents

Publicly Posted Composite Documents (PPCDs) address the problem of composite documents with different formats and varied sensitivity participating in cross-organizational workflows distributed over potentially non-secure channels. An early version of the PPCD, however, is susceptible to silent workflow termination, wherein a document shipped by one workflow participant is never received by the subsequent participant, causing the workflow to terminate without notification. In the current paper, we extend the PPCD solution to provide an early detection mechanism for a potential workflow termination, to provide workflow recovery procedures, and to provide for the often mandatory document logging and audit information.