Workflowmanagement

Workflow management is the design, execution, and monitoring of processes in which tasks are passed from one participant or system to another according to a defined set of rules. It aims to coordinate people, software, and information to achieve a business objective efficiently. Workflow management encompasses modeling processes, executing them, tracking progress, and optimizing performance. It is closely related to business process management (BPM) but focuses specifically on the operational flow of tasks and information, often within an organization’s information systems. In practice, workflow management may be implemented as workflow automation or orchestration, supported by a workflow engine that enforces routing, timing, and data handling according to a process model.

Core components include a process model that defines tasks, sequencing, decisions, and exceptions; an execution engine that enforces the model; user interfaces and task management for human participants; data management to carry the necessary information between steps; integration adapters to connect with other systems; and monitoring and analytics to measure performance, bottlenecks, and conformance to service levels.

Standards such as BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) provide a graphical language for describing workflow models. Common workflow patterns cover task assignment, parallel execution, conditional routing, and event-driven advances.

Workflow management is used across industries for IT operations, manufacturing, healthcare, and service delivery, and is increasingly delivered as cloud-based platforms with low-code/no-code capabilities, enabling rapid automation and data-driven optimization.