Development of an XPDL-Based Workflow Management System Using the Light-Weight Component Structure

Recently, many enterprises are introducing a workflow management system for the successful implementation of BPR(Business Process Reengineering). Proposed in this study is the workflow management system which has a light-weight component structure and an XPDL(XML Process Definition Language) file interpretation facility. The XPDL is the standard process definition exchange format developed by WfMC(Workflow Management Coalition). The major causes of inefficiency at current implementations of workflow management systems are the centralized workflow engine structure and the use of proprietary workflow definition format among most solutions. The proposed light-weight component structure in this study is the intermediate structure that takes the strength of both centralized and distributed workflow engines. And a prototype workflow system which uses an XPDL process definition file as input is developed through the thorough analysis of functional requirements.