The Workflow reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Workflow

Workflow is the operational aspect of a work procedure: how tasks are structured, who performs them, what their relative order is, how they are synchronized, how information flows to support the tasks and how tasks are being tracked. Workflow problems can be modeled and analyzed using Petri nets.

While the concept of workflow is not specific to information technology, support for workflow is an integral part of groupware software.

Wide-sense application

In a sense, Wikipedia is an example of a open workflow system with broad user input, which has a process to maintain order and structure.

Workflow systems may leverage expertise by forwarding contributions to users who then add their input. The forwarding process is an open area for development in larger systems of political and expertise management. The aim of forwarding is to use the knowledge of others to magnify the value of input into the work flow.

Links

• W4 sells one of the main workflow core.

• OpenSymphony, an Open Source workflow core.

• This coalition tries to make a standard.

• VivTek proposes a free tool-kit for workflow named wftk (under license GNU/GPL).

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