End user oriented workflow approach including structured processing of ad hoc workflows with a collaborative process engine

Abstract

In a structured workflow system, a configurable workflow engine provides mechanisms for executing and scheduling the work items in a defined way. End users use their discretion and define their own 'local' processes and 'local' rules for processing work items, or deviate from predefined processes. The configurable workflow engine might be installed at a server to organize workflows and business processes where end users can define processing steps for incoming work items by setting up rules and defining workflows as part of a local workflow structure. By defining these rules and workflows, the further processing steps of future incoming work items can be automated. When an administrator directs the workflow engine to move from a current phase to a next phase, the workflow engine deals with the incomplete items by allowing the administrator to carry over work items (or might do it automatically). End-user consultation might be included in the carry-over decisions. The carried over work items are added as parallel activities to the next phase. The workflow engine handles imposing and executing control flow dependencies between tasks, thus providing a smooth transition from totally unstructured work to semi-structured or completely structured work. When the workflow engine encounters semantically correlated work items/tasks, the process engine assumes that these work items/tasks belong to the same process instance.