A Pattern for Managing Distributed Workflows

Patterns in the domain of workflow management systems(WFMS) have been written. Meszaros and Brown wrote a pattern language for workflow systems[11]. They considered the workflow facility a component of a system and described the process for creating that system. Thus their pattern language falls short of describing workflow facilities managed by an independent WFMS with additional features: transaction, adaptiveness, error handling, etc. Moreover, it does not address issues associated with managing distributed workflows in which more than one department or enterprise are involved. Such distributed workflows are very common these days.