A general framework for the execution of heterogenous programs in workflow management systems

Application programs are a substantial asset of an organization. The introduction of workflow management technology must provide means and mechanisms to integrate existing application programs which are not aware of workflow management systems in the same seamless manner as newly written, workflow-aware applications. The paper presents a general approach for integrating workflow-unaware application programs into workflow management systems. Their concepts enable the integration of application programs which are implemented on top of heterogeneous operating systems or base services into our prototype workflow management system MOBILE. Furthermore, they support the execution of several transactional application programs within a single transaction controlled by the workflow management system.