Workflow Handbook 2001

Rating:
Summary: Table of Contents
Review: As Editor of the Workflow Handbook 2001, I feel that adding the TOC will help readers decide if this is the right book for them:

Divided into three main sections; "The World of Workflow," Workflow Standards" and "Directory and Appendices," Workflow Handbook 2001 includes the full new Wf-XML Binding Specification and the updated WfMC workflow glossary.

White papers cover topics such as the role of workflow in portal environments, managing time in workflow systems, and fundamental trends in application integration, development tools, and workflow engine cooperation.

The Appendix includes a listing of the more than 250 Workflow Management Coalition member organizations. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), a non-profit international organization of workflow vendors, academics, users and consultants (www.wfmc.org). Their contributions to the Workflow Handbook are educational in nature, vendor-independent and have studiously avoided any element of a sales pitch.

Workflow: An Introduction; Rob Allen, Open Image Systems Inc., UK

Workflow for the Information Worker; Keith Swenson, MS2 Inc., USA

The Many Generations of Workflow; Carl Frappaolo, Delphi Consulting Group, USA

Workflow-based Process Controlling-Or: What You Can Measure You Can Control; Michael zur Muehlen, University of Muenster, Germany

The Role of Workflow in Portal Environments; Mike Marin, FileNET Corporation, USA

A Supply Chain Management Framework using the TINA-C Business Model and a jFlow Workflow Prototype; Benito T. Giordani and Manuel de J. Mendes, GMD FOKUS, Germany

Managing Time in Workflow Systems; Johann Eder, University of Klagenfurt, Austria; Euthimios Panagos, AT&T Labs - Research, USA

The Birth of m-Commerce; Robert Haxne, Staffware, UK

Interworkflow: A Challenge for Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce; Haruo Hayami and Masashi Katsumata, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Ken-ichi Okada, Keio University, Japan

Applying Intelligent Workflow Management in the Chemicals Industries; Jussi Stader, Jonathan Moore, Paul Chung, Ian McBriar, Mohan Ravinranathan, Ann Macintosh, United Kingdom

Workflow in the Public Sector; Kathleen K. Billie, DoxSys, Inc., USA

Building Complex Workflow Applications: How to Overcome the Limitations of the Waterfall Model; Stefan Junginger, BOC GmbH, Germany; Harald Kuehn, BOC GmbH, Austria; Mark Heidenfeld, BOC Ltd, Ireland; Dimitris Karagiannis, University of Vienna, Austria

From Workflow to e-Process Automation; Dave Hollingsworth, ICL, United Kingdom

Three Fundamental Trends: Application Integration, Development Tools, and Workflow Engine Cooperation; Martin Ader, Workflow and Groupware Strategies, France

SECTION 2-Workflow Standards

The Value of Standards; Betsy Fanning, AIIM International

Workflow Interoperability Standards for the Internet; James G. Hayes, Computer Sciences Corporation, USA; Effat Peyrovian, ECC Consultants, USA; Sunil Sarin, TIBCO Software, USA; Marc-Thomas Schmidt, IBM UK Ltd., UK; Keith D. Swenson, MS2 Inc., USA; Rainer Weber, SAP AG, Germany

Workflow Standard-Interoperability Wf-XML Binding

SECTION 3-Directory and Appendices

Terminology and Glossary; WfMC Structure and Membership Details; WfMC Officers; Coalition Member Directory; Author Directory

For an organization to achieve effective electronic communication, its workflow systems need to successfully interoperate both internally at the department level and externally with the organizations with which they do business. This can apply to external parties such as vendors, other businesses, and customers.

To achieve wide scale interoperability between organizations, cooperation between workflow vendors is critical. The Workflow Management Coalition ... has worked strenuously for the adoption of standards throughout the industry. Standards allow organizations that have more than one workflow system to connect them easily. They provide a fertile environment for workflow component development to grow and flourish, giving a rich array of options for user organizations. Most importantly, standards provide an infrastructure for inter-organizational process automation and the basis for electronic commerce.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Analysis of Workflow
Review: I can only say congratulations on this most informative book. As a source of information about workflow it is excellent!!

Rating:
Summary: Workflow Handbook
Review: I was disappointed when the Workflow Coalition failed to bring out a next publication after the 1997 Handbook. At last, we have the 2001 edition, which is truly great. Like the last edition, this is basically a collection of white papers by a bunch of techno-gurus over a broad spectrum that addresses the interests of any organization involved in information technology.

I liked David Hollingsworth's paper on how workflow supports e-business. He's the top workflow guru at ICL and really knows the deal. Another paper I liked that made good sense was Michael zur Muehlen's "Workflow-based Process Controlling-Or: What You Can Measure You Can Control." (He's a wizkid professor from a university in Germany...)

There are about another 20 chapters (I'm going from memory) that cover workflow/BPR/IT etc. The appendices includes the workflow glossary, and the full nteroperability Wf-XML binding.

By and large, I'd say this book is worth the money (it's not cheap) - but I learned a lot (more than I thought I would). Go to the wfmc.org website for more info on the organization. The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) creates workflow standards like Wf-XML, and was the first to establish stuff like workflow interfaces for e-commerce, b2b etc.

Our company uses their standards, because everybody else does.

Rating:
Summary: Workflow Handbook 2001
Review: The Workflow Handbook 2001 is exactly what the title indicates. It is a valuable handbook for anyone who is interested in learning about workflow management. Workflow, under whatever label you wish to give it, is a critical enabler in today's hot technologies, such as portals and e-business.

The first chapter - Workflow: An Introduction - describes the current understanding of workflow with the assumption that the reader has no prior knowledge of the topic. It is designed as a basic primer that will help with the appreciation of the more advanced topics described in later articles.

The 20-page paper on workflow interoperability standards for the Internet is clear and easy to understand. It includes details of which operations are defined in the current version of the Wf-XML interoperability specification and a reference list of business-to-business protocols that are being defined and standardized for capturing different business models and

processes. It also describes the efforts toward defining a standard for workflow interoperability that began in 1994 with the Workflow Reference Model from the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC)...

Rating:
Summary: Workflow Handbook 2001
Review: The Workflow Handbook 2001 is exactly what the title indicates. It is a valuable handbook for anyone who is interested in learning about workflow management. Workflow, under whatever label you wish to give it, is a critical enabler in today's hot technologies, such as portals and e-business.

The first chapter - Workflow: An Introduction - describes the current understanding of workflow with the assumption that the reader has no prior knowledge of the topic. It is designed as a basic primer that will help with the appreciation of the more advanced topics described in later articles.

The 20-page paper on workflow interoperability standards for the Internet is clear and easy to understand. It includes details of which operations are defined in the current version of the Wf-XML interoperability specification and a reference list of business-to-business protocols that are being defined and standardized for capturing different business models and

processes. It also describes the efforts toward defining a standard for workflow interoperability that began in 1994 with the Workflow Reference Model from the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC)...

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview on the Scope of Workflow
Review: This book puts workflow in its proper context - much more: it convincingly shows how pervasive the subject has become, despite earlier reports on its death as yet another hype gone sour. On the contrary, the most glorious days for this technology still lie ahead as is eloquently presented in the chapter by Carl Frappolo "The many Generations of workflow", which I particularly enjoyed. It becomes clear that the biggest driver of this technology is and will be the internet, whether for e-business, e-government or enterprise portals, actually for most future web application. And this also means continuous adaptation and further development of the field. It is not surprising: after all behind many web application there is some process, and the automation of a process is called workflow by definition, even if it is not made explicit. I strongly recommend the book to anybody concerned with internet/intranet applications.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview on the Scope of Workflow
Review: This book puts workflow in its proper context - much more: it convincingly shows how pervasive the subject has become, despite earlier reports on its death as yet another hype gone sour. On the contrary, the most glorious days for this technology still lie ahead as is eloquently presented in the chapter by Carl Frappolo "The many Generations of workflow", which I particularly enjoyed. It becomes clear that the biggest driver of this technology is and will be the internet, whether for e-business, e-government or enterprise portals, actually for most future web application. And this also means continuous adaptation and further development of the field. It is not surprising: after all behind many web application there is some process, and the automation of a process is called workflow by definition, even if it is not made explicit. I strongly recommend the book to anybody concerned with internet/intranet applications.