Our work is related to the quest of the OMG to define a Workflow Management Facility. However, the Workflow Management Facility
proposal [1] stresses runtime interoperability of existing workflow management systems and the ability to use workflow monitoring
and auditing tools in these settings [6]. Other approaches to object-oriented workflow management system design include the
Meteor
2 project at the University of Georgia [7]. In Meteor
2, workflow specifications are translated into executable code, which is then executed in a distributed fashion. CORBA is used
in the Meteor2 system as a communication infrastructure for distributed workflow executions.
This paper overviews the conceptual foundations and the system design and implementation of WASA2, an object-oriented workflow management system based on CORBA. An in-depth presentation of the conceptual design and implementation
of WASA2 can be found in [9]. Key features are reuse of workflow schemas, distributed workflow execution control, persistent workflow
executions, and the support for dynamic modifications of running workflow instances with the ability to control the scope
of these changes. It is interesting to notice that the requirements as specified in [6] to a large extent are satisfied by
the WASA2 system, involving (i) changes of the underlying process model, (ii) composition of reusable business components, (iii) monitoring
of process execution, (iv) distribution of a process across business domains and (v) assignment of process steps to workflow
participants.