A framework for configurable workflow systems

Workflow technology, which is characterized by extracting process logic from individual applications and manipulating it separately to achieve organization-wide business process integration and automation, asks for an appropriate infrastructure support and encourages new system architectural styles. The paper presents a framework for constructing workflow based applications. Based on configurable models, software agents and business objects, the framework focuses on, in addition to supporting the basic requirements of workflow based computing, the flexibility issues that are identified as a deficiency of many contemporary workflow systems. With the help of the framework, a workflow system can be more flexibly composed at runtime according to specific and changing needs