The goal of content-oriented workflow models is to articulate workflow progression by the presence of content units (like data-records/objects/documents). Most content-oriented workflow approaches provide a life-cycle model for content units, such that workflow progression can be qualified by conditions on the state of the units. Most approaches are research and work in progress and the content models and life-cycle models are more or less formalized. The term ''content-oriented workflows'' is an umbrella term for several scientific workflow approaches, namely "data-driven", "resource-driven", "artifact-centric", "object-aware", and "document-oriented". Thus, the meaning of "content" ranges from simple data attributes to self-contained documents; the term "content-oriented workflows" appeared at first in as an umbrella term. Such general term, independent from a specific approach, is necessary to contrast the content-oriented modelling principle with traditional activity-oriented workflow models (like

Petri net A Petri net, also known as a place/transition net (PT net), is one of several mathematical modeling languages for the description of distributed systems. It is a class of discrete event dynamic system. A Petri net is a directed bipartite graph t ...

s or

BPMN Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. Originally developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), BPMN has been maintained by the ...

) where a workflow is driven by a control flow and where the content production perspective is neglected or even missing. The term "content" was chosen to subsume the different levels in granularity of the content units in the respective workflow models; it was also chosen to make associations with

content management Content management (CM) are a set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

. Both terms "artifact-centric" and "data-driven" would also be good candidates for an umbrella term, but each is closely related to a specific approach of a single working group. The "artifact-centric" group itself (i.e. IBM Research) has generalized the characteristics of their approach and has used "information-centric" as an umbrella term in. Yet, the term

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

is too unspecific in the context of computer science, thus, "content-orientated workflows" is considered as good compromise.

Workflow Model Approaches

Data-driven

The data-driven process structures provides a sophisticated workflow model being specialized on hierarchical write-and-review-processes. The approach provides interleaved synchronization of sub-processes and extends activity diagrams. Unfortunately, the COREPRO prototype implementation is not publicly available. Research on the project had been ceased. The general idea has been continued by Reichert in form of the #Object-aware approach. ; Synonyms : data-driven process structures / data-driven modeling and coordination ;Protagonists : Dr. Dominic Müller (University of Twente), Joachim Herbst (DaimlerChrysler Research), and Manfred Reichert (at this tim
Assoc. Prof. at Univ. of Twente
currentl

;Organization(s) : University of Twente, DaimlerChrysler ;Period : 2005 - 2007 ;Selected publications : ;Implementation
COREPRO

Resource-driven

The resource-driven workflow system is an early approach that considered workflows from a content-oriented perspective and emphasizes on the missing support for plain document-driven processes by traditional activity-oriented workflow engines. The resource-driven approach demonstrated the application of database triggers for handling workflow events. Still the system implementation is centralized and the workflow schema is statically defined. The project appeared in 2005 but many aspects are considered future work by the authors. Research did not continue on the project. Wang completed his PhD thesis in 2009, yet, his thesis does not mention the resource-driven approach to workflow modelling but is about discrete event simulation. ;Synonyms : Resource-based Workflows / Document-Driven Workflow Systems ;Protagonists : Jianrui Wang an
Prof. Akhil Kumar
;Organization : Pennsylvania State University ;Period : 2005 - today ;Selected publications : ;Implementation : N/A

Artifact-centric

The artifact-centric approach appears as a mature framework for general purpose content-oriented workflows. The distribution of the enterprise application landscape with its business services is considered, yet, the workflow engine itself seems to be centralized. The process enactment seems to be tightly coupled with a technically pre-integrated database management system infrastructure. The latter makes it most suitable for manufacturing process or for organizational processes within a well-defined institutional scope. The approach remains work in progress, still, it is a relatively old and established project on content-oriented workflows. Funded by IBM, it has comparably high number of developers. It is a promising approach. ;Synonyms : artifact-centric business process models / artifact-based business process (ACP) / artifact-centric workflows ;Protagonists

and Dr. Kamal Bhattacharya as well as Cagdas E. Gerede and Jianwen Su ;Organization : IBM (T.J. Watson Research Center, NY) ;Period : 2007 - today ;Selected publications : ;Implementation

Object-aware

The object-aware approach manages a set of object types and generates forms for creating object instances. The form completion flow is controlled by transitions between object configurations each describing a progressing set of mandatory attributes. Each object configuration is named by an object state. The data production flow is user-shifting and it is discrete by defining a sequence of object states. The discussion is currently limited to a centralized system, without any workflows across different organizations. However, the approach is of great relevance to many domains like concurrent engineering. Finally, the object-aware approach and its PHILharmonicFlows system are going to provide general-purpose workflow systems for generic enactment of data production processes. ;Synonyms : object-aware process management / datenorientiertes Prozess-Management-System ;Protagonists

an

;Organization : Ulm University ;Period : 2009 - today ;Selected publications : ;Implementation

Distributed Document-oriented

Distributed document-oriented process management (dDPM) enables distributed case handling in heterogeneous system environments and it is based on document-oriented

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

. The workflow model reflects the paper-based working practice in inter-institutional healthcare scenarios. It targets distributed knowledge-driven ad hoc workflows, wherein distributed information systems are required to coordinate work with initially unknown sets of actors and activities. The distributed workflow engine supports process planning & process history as well as participant management and process template creation with import/export. The workflow engine embeds a functional fusion of 1) group-based instant messaging 2) with a shared work list editor 3) with version control. The software implementation of dDPM is α-Flow which is available as open source. dDPM and α-Flow provide a content-oriented approach to schema-less workflows. The complete distributed case handling application is provided in form of a single active Document ("α-Doc"). The α-Doc is a case file (as information carrier) with an embedded workflow engine (in form of active properties). Inviting process participants is equivalent to providing them with a copy of an α-Doc, copying it like an ordinary desktop file. All α-Docs that belong to the same case can synchronize each other, based on the participant management, electronic postboxes, store-and-forward messaging, and an offline-capable synchronization protocol. ;Synonyms : distributed document-oriented process management (dDPM), distributed case handling via active documents ;Protagonists
Christoph P. Neumann
an
Prof. Richard Lenz
;Organization : Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ;Period : 2009 - 2012 ;Selected Publications : and a PhD thesis ;Implementation
α-Flow (open source)

Related Concepts

Content Management

The bandwidth of

Content management system A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

s (CMS) reaches from

Web content management system A web content management system (WCM or WCMS) is a software content management system (CMS) specifically for web content. It provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools that help users with little knowledge of web program ...

s (WCMS) and

Document management system A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is r ...

(DMS) to

Enterprise Content Management Enterprise content management (ECM) extends the concept of content management by adding a timeline for each content item and, possibly, enforcing processes for its creation, approval, and distribution. Systems using ECM generally provide a secur ...

(ECM). Mature DMS products support document production workflows in a basic form, primarily focusing on review cycle workflows concerning a single document.

Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

Groupware focuses on messaging (like E-Mail, Chat, and Instant Messaging), shared calendars (e.g. Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook with Exchange Server), and conferencing (e.g. Skype). Groupware overlaps with

Computer-supported cooperative work Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is the study of how people utilize technology collaboratively, often towards a shared goal. CSCW addresses how computer systems can support collaborative activity and coordination. More specifically, the ...

(CSCW), that originated from shared multimedia editors (for live drawing/sketching) and synchronous multi-user applications like

desktop sharing Desktop sharing is a common name for technologies and products that allow remote access and remote collaboration on a person's computer desktop through a graphical terminal emulator. The most common two scenarios for desktop sharing are: * Remote ...

. The extensive conceptual claim of CSWC must be put into perspective by its actual solution scope, that is available as the CSCW Matrix.

Case Handling

The case handling paradigm stems from Prof. van der Aalst and gained momentum in 2005. The core features are: (a) provide all information available, i.e. present the case as a whole rather than showing bits and pieces, (b) decide about activities on the basis of the information available rather than the activities already executed, (c) separate work distribution from authorization and allow for additional types of roles, not just the execute role, and (d) allow workers to view and add/modify data before or after the corresponding activities have been executed. In healthcare, the flow of a patient between healthcare professionals is considered as a workflow - with activities that include all kinds of diagnostic or therapeutic treatments. The workflow is considered as a case, and workflow management in healthcare is to handle these cases. Case handling is orthogonal to content-oriented workflows. Some content-oriented workflow approaches are not related to case handling, but, for example, to automated manufacturing. In contrast, systems that are considered to be case handling systems (CHS) but which do not apply a content-oriented workflow model are, for example, BPMone (formerly PROTOS and FLOWer) from Pallas Athena, ECHO from Digital, CMDT from ICL, and Vectus from London Bridge Group. In conclusion, those content-oriented workflow approaches that are tightly related to case handling are the #Resource-driven workflow model and the #Distributed Document-oriented workflow model. ;Protagonists
Prof. Wil van der Aalst
and Associate Professor Dr
Hajo Reijers
(with focus on healthcare) ;Organization : Univ. of Technology, Eindhoven ;Period : 2001 - today ;Selected publication :

References

Christoph P. Neumann and Richard Lenz
The alpha-Flow Use-Case of Breast Cancer Treatment - Modeling Inter-Institutional Healthcare Workflows by Active Documents
In: Proc of the 8th Int'l Workshop on Agent-based Computing for Enterprise Collaboration (ACEC) at the 19th Int'l Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructures for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2010), Larissa, Greece, June 2010.
PDF
Kumaran, S., R. Liu, and F. Wu
On the Duality of Information-Centric and Activity-Centric Models of Business Processes
In: Advanced Information Systems Engineering. 2008. p. 32-47. Dominic Müller, Manfred Reichert und Joachim Herbst
Flexibility of Data-Driven Process Structures
In: Business Process Management Workshops Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006, Volume 4103/2006, 181-192.
PDF
Dominic Müller, Manfred Reichert und Joachim Herbst
Data-Driven Modeling and Coordination of Large Process Structures
On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2007: CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE, GADA, and IS Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007, Volume 4803/2007, 131-149.
PDF
Kamal Bhattacharya, Cagdas Gerede, Richard Hull, Rong Liu, and Jianwen Su. 2007
Towards formal analysis of artifact-centric business process models
In Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Business process management (BPM'07), Gustavo Alonso, Peter Dadam, and Michael Rosemann (Eds.). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 288-304. (pages 289ff in
PDF
) Diego Calvanese, Giuseppe De Giacomo, Richard Hull und Jianwen Su
Artifact-Centric Workflow Dominance
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009, Volume 5900/2009, 130-143.
PDF
Vera Künzle und Manfred Reichert
Towards Object-Aware Process Management Systems: Issues, Challenges, Benefits
In: Enterprise, Business-Process and Information Systems Modeling Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2009, Volume 29, Part 1, Part 5, 197-210, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-01862-6_17
PDF
Künzle, Vera and Reichert, Manfred. 2010
Herausforderungen bei der Integration von Benutzern in Datenorientierten Prozess-Management-Systemen
EMISA Forum, 30 (1). pp. 11-28. ISSN 1610-3351
PDF
Wang, J. and A. Kumar
A Framework for Document-Driven Workflow Systems
In: Business Process Management. 2005. p. 285-301.
PDF
Akhil Kumar und Jianrui Wang
A Framework for Designing Resource-Driven Workflows
In: Handbook on Business Process Management 1, International Handbooks on Information Systems, 2010, Part III, 419-440. Christoph P. Neumann, Peter K. Schwab, Andreas M. Wahl and Richard Lenz. alpha-Adaptive: Evolutionary Workflow Metadata in Distributed Document-Oriented Process Management. In: Proc of the 4th Int'l Workshop on Process-oriented Information Systems in Healthcare (ProHealth'11) in conjunction with the 9th Int'l Conf on Business Process Management (BPM'11), Clermont-Ferrand, France, August 2011.
PDF
Christoph P. Neumann and Richard Lenz. The alpha-Flow Approach to Inter-Institutional Process Support in Healthcare. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Organizations. IGI Global, 2012. Christoph P. Neumann

PhD thesis (German 'Dissertation'). Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. 2012. Hajo Reijers, Jaap Rigter, Wil Van Der Aalst

International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems (IJCIS), Volume: 12, Issue: 3(2003) pp. 365-391.
PDF
Wil M.P. van der Aalst, Mathias Weske, Dolf Grünbauer
Case handling: a new paradigm for business process support
In: Data & Knowledge Engineering, Volume 53, Issue 2, May 2005, Pages 129-162, ISSN 0169-023X, 10.1016/j.datak.2004.07.003.
PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Content-oriented Workflows Business process modelling Data management