Component-based workflow systems development

Component-based development is a promising way to promote the productivity of large workflow systems development. This paper proposes a component-based workflow systems development approach by investigating the following notions, mechanisms, and methods: workflow component, workflow component composition, reuse–association relationship between workflow components, and workflow component repository. The proposed approach is supported by a set of development strategies and a development platform. Through application and comparison, we show the advantages of the component-based workflow systems and the effectiveness of the proposed approach. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.