A document-process association model for workflow management

  • Authors:

  • Hyerim Bae;Yeongho Kim

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Industrial Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea;Department of Industrial Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea

  • Venue:
  • Computers in Industry
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

A WorkFlow Management System (WFMS) is a software system to support an automatic, efficient execution of business processes. A business process often involves document processing. Although, many traditional WFMSs can support the document processing to some extent, they are concerned mainly with document delivery. We propose an XML-based approach to WFMS for form document processing on the Web. Taking advantage of XML, we can partition a document into several meaningful segments, each of which in this approach becomes a unit of work that can be performed by some activities in a workflow process. Based on this document partition, we develop a formal model, called document-process association model, which can associate the units of work with process activities. The model not only provides a tight control over document-related processes, but it also enables various useful services, such as customization of document monitoring and contents-based interaction between WFMS and other application programs. A prototype system has been implemented to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model.