The Workflow OSID provides a means for managing the flow of work. The Workflow OSID is part of a service cluster that includes the Resourcing OSID, Tracking OSID and Process OSID. The Workflow OSID provides an overall view of the flow of work through a process.

Work

Work is an abstract concept that indicates something to be worked on by Resources (workers) in a workflow Process .

Steps

A Step is the primary component of a workflow process in which work is performed. A Step may have required input conditions (or states) that permit Work to enter a Step. When the Work is completed at a Step, the Step defines the State transition of the Work. The valid next Steps in a Process is determined by the accepted input States of the other Steps.

A Step may have assigned Resources to perform the work. These Resources may be managed manually in the Workflow OSID or through orchestration of the Resourcing OSID where the Process maps to a Job and the Work is the Work .

Processes

A Process is a set of Steps in a workflow. Work entering a Process is assigned an initial Step and an initial State as defined by the Process.

Both Processes and Steps are OsidGovernators that may be operated through a set of rules to dynamically manage the workflow.

WorkflowEvents

Work moving through a Process can be examined using WorkflowEvents. Monitoring at a finer grained level can be performed by orchestrating a Tracking OSID where a Step is a Queue and the Work is an Issue.

Office Cataloging

Work, Steps, and Processes may be organized into federateable OsidCatalogs .

Sub Packages

The Workflow OSID includes a Workflow Rules OSID to manage the operation of Processes and Steps and impose additional input constraints on Steps.