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Abstract:
Workflow management systems support the eficient, largely automated execution
of business processes. However; using a workflow management system typically
requires implementing the application's control flow exclusively by the
workflow management system. This approach is powerful if the control flow is
specified and implemented from scratch, but it has severe drawbacks if a
workflow management system is to be integrated within environments with
existing solutions for implementing control flow. Usually, the existing
solutions are too complex to be substituted by the workflow management system
at once. Hence, the workflow management system must support an incremental
integration, i.e. the reuse of existing implementations of control flow as well
as their incremental substitution.Extending the workflow management system's
functionality according to future application needs, e.g. by worklist and
history management, must also be possible. In particular at the beginning of an
incremental integration process, only a limited amount of a workflow management
system's functionality is actually exploited by the workflow application. Later
on, as the integration proceeds, more advanced requirements arise and demand
the customization of the workfow management system to the evolving application
needs.In this paper; we present the architecture and implementation of a
light-weight workflow management system, coined Mentor-lite, which aims to
overcome the above mentioned shortcomings of conventional workflow management
systems. Mentor-lite supports an easy integration of workflow functionality
into an existing environment, and can be tailored to specific workflow
application needs.
